UFC 130 Fight Card | Brian Stann vs Jorge Santiago | Rampage Jackson vs Matt Hamill | Miguel Torres vs. Demetrious Johnson

Saturday, May 28, 2011

UFC 130 Fight Card | Brian Stann vs Jorge Santiago | Rampage Jackson vs Matt Hamill | Miguel Torres vs. Demetrious Johnson | Frank Mir vs. Roy Nels

Quinton "Rampage" Jackson faces Matt Hamill in a light heavyweight bout at UFC 130.The fight is headlining the UFC 130 card but it wasn't supposed to. Originally, the third match between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard for the lightweight title was to headline the card. Both of those fighters were injured and had to drop off the card.

Nor was Jackson vs Hamill even supposed to be the original co-headliner. It was originally booked as Rampage against Thiago Silva, but Silva failed his post-fight drug test at UFC 125 and had to withdraw from the bout.

Hamill for his part was supposed to be fighting Phil Davis, but now Davis is stepping in for Jon Jones against Rashad Evans at UFC 133.

Given all that, it's a somewhat interesting match as Jackson wasn't at his best in a controversial decision win over Lyoto Machida at UFC 123 and has been openly saying he'd rather be making movies than fighting.

For his part Hamill is making a big step up in competition here. Despite having nine wins in the UFC, Hamill hasn't beaten anyone who's currently relevant in the division. His best wins were all against undersized fighters who've since moved down to middleweight (Mark Munoz, Tim Boetsch), guys who've been cut (Keith Jardine, Reese Andy) or aging and injured (Tito Ortiz). True Hamill is the only man to own a win over current champ Jon Jones, but he was destroyed in that fight and owes the win to a DQ on Jones' part for battering a helpless Hamill with 12 to 6 elbows to the eye.

If Jackson, who is visibly in very good trim, comes into the bout at the top of his game he should have few problems handling Hamill. Jackson is one of the best boxers in MMA with excellent footwork and smooth, deadly combination punching. Hamill is a good wrestler and strikes with power, but he has many glaring flaws in his MMA game and can't shift seamlessly from striking to wrestling.

Jackson has fought the very best competition in the sport for almost a decade now. Hamill hasn't. Hamill has been in big fights on big cards, though so he won't be intimidated by Rampage or by headlining.