At UFC 123, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Lyoto Machida met in a battle of former UFC light heavyweight champions. Due to the somewhat absurd "rules" of the UFC this, as all non-title fights, was only a three round affair which seems counter-productive when you've got two men who have been in 5 round fights in the past. But still, those were the rules as they were set and they led to a somewhat inconclusive ending.
The first two rounds of the Machida/Jackson bout were extremely close with round two fairly clearly a Rampage round. Round one was incredibly close, though, and depending on what the viewer was looking for as to who they would favor. Jackson was coming forward, but Machida landed leg kicks and avoided damage for the majority of the round.
In the third round, Machida finally found the opening for a counterpunch and it hurt Jackson. He landed a flurry of punches and kicks after hurting Rampage and took the fight to the floor. On the ground, Machida passed to side control and then into full mount. He didn't do a lot of damage from mount and gave up position on an armbar attempt that Jackson powered out of, but it was the most dominant round of the fight.
Still, Machida hadn't made enough of a point in the first two rounds for the judges as two of them saw the bout 29-28 for Jackson while one scored it 29-28 for Machida. SB Nation scored the bout 29-28 for Machida but I can certainly see the score going the other way.
SB Nation will have much more on UFC 123 over the next few days so make sure to keep checking back for more information.
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