Keith Jardine: The Hardest Working Man in MMA, Part Two

In Part One of this article, I detailed the first half of Keith Jardine's UFC career, including his gritty battles with Stephan Bonnar and Wlson Gouveia, and his shocking win over future champion Forrest Griffin.

Coming off that huge win, the UFC made a surprising move, and put Jardine up against newcomer Houston Alexander, who was making his debut with the promotion.

In retrospect, this was somewhat telling of the UFC management's feelings toward Jardine, as anyone else in his situation may have been groomed for title contention, but Keith's supposed lack of marketability simply put him right back into the fray.

Admittedly, there is always another side to the story; scheduling conflicts with champions, the chaotic nature of the light heavyweight division in general, and the fact that Jardine had made a habit of fighting as often as possible, may have caused this matchup.

However, it was made clear by the commentators that Jardine felt somewhat slighted by this "demotion."

Nearly anyone who watches the UFC knows what happened next.

Whether it was nerves, the surprise of fighting an unknown commodity, or that Jardine truly did take Houston lightly, we may never know.

What we do know is that after being dropped in the opening seconds of the fight, Houston exploded, bull rushing Jardine into the fence, and, taking advantage of Keith's over-eagerness to finish the fight quickly, launched one of the most brutal clinch assaults ever seen.

Jardine hung in as best he could, but it was clear he was on the losing end of the barrage. Houston appeared to land an illegal knee in the flurry, but the outcome was very likely academic at that point: Jardine had been felled by a fighter few had ever heard of, and much of his hard work up to that point had been dashed away.

Down but not out, Jardine did what he always does after a loss. He went back to the drawing board, and on to the next opponent.

Ironically, he got what he had wanted a few months back; a shot at longtime light heavyweight champion and UFC legend Chuck Liddell. Unfortunately, the shot came at a time when Liddell had just lost the championship to Quinton Jackson, and the fight was seen by many as a way to get Liddell back on the fast track to a title rematch.

The loss to Alexander had severely damaged his credibility, even though Houston had notched another brutal knockout over Alessio Sakara only weeks before the Liddell fight. Houston would later show to have holes in his ground game, but his ability to deal damage on the feet was becoming solidified.

Once again, the buzz was against Jardine.

And once again, “The Dean of Mean” showed why he is not only the UFC's resident "spoiler," but one of the toughest competitors in the division. He did something that very few people had been willing to do in years; he stood with Chuck Liddell for three rounds, and took the decision win.

It was a bloody, brutal fight, in which Jardine absorbed huge amounts of punishment, but through fantastic evasive movement, an array of punishing leg and body kicks, and pure guts, Keith outworked, out-landed, and even managed to knock down the supposedly superior striker in Liddell.

Some critics like to look at this victory in hindsight, to devalue it on the basis that Liddell was beginning his decline. I would argue this fight did not take advantage of that decline, so much as help to cause it. Greg Jackson and Jardine had solved the riddle of Liddell.

For years, Liddell had made a career out of knocking people out as they tried to take him down. In doing this, he developed habits and strategies, as well as a confidence in his standup ability, so much so that he truly seemed to believe no one would stand up with him.

Even coming off a KO loss to Rampage Jackson, Liddell appeared to stick by these habits. As a result, Jardine was able to commit heavily to his strikes, particularly his kicks, without fear of a takedown.

He was also able to take advantage of holes in Liddell's standing defense that had developed over years of relying on his chin to counterstrike against largely grappling-based opponents.

Uncharacteristically, Jardine sat out nearly eight months after that fight, perhaps wanting to wait until a bigger challenge was available to fight him. In a bit of odd matchmaking, the challenge came, all right—Wanderlei Silva.

The former Pride Fighting Championship champion had finally made his way to the UFC, and was being put in front of Jardine. Oddly, Wanderlei was coming off a loss to Liddell, who had just prior lost to Jardine, but never one to turn down a fight, Keith stepped up to the plate.

Unfortunately, the fight was a disaster for Jardine. A known slow-starter, he was blitzed in 36 seconds by the “Axe Murderer,” and sent to the back of the line once more.

Silva caught a leg kick by Jardine in the opening seconds of the fight, and unleashed his trademark flurry of hooks, eventually pounding Keith on the canvas and forcing a referee stoppage.

Bloody and beaten, but not broken, Jardine picked himself back up from the loss and did what he does best; he got back in the gym and went to work.

Read Part Three of this article to see how Jardine rebounded from this loss!