Quinton “Rampage” Jackson edged Lyoto Machida in Saturday’s UFC 123 main event, earning a split decision from the judges after the close battle between the former light heavyweight champions capped off the pay-per-view event in Detroit.
UFC 123 also saw BJ Penn stun fellow former champ Matt Hughes in their anticipated rubber match as he knocked out the hall of famer in just 21-seconds.
Jackson got off to a strong start as he controlled the center of the Octagon and forced Machida into exchanges in the opening round, but after a close second frame highlighted by struggles in the clinch, Machida clearly won the third after threatening with an armbar from mount.
In the end it was Rampage’s aggression and more-powerful punches that won him the fight, as he earned a pair of 29-28 scores over Machida’s single 29-28 tally.
“Rampage” bounces back from a May loss to rival Rashad Evans and improves to 31-8 to take a step towards another shot at the title, while Machida falls to 16-2 with his second-straight loss after dropping the title to “Shogun” in May.
After the questionable decision was handed down, Jackson admitted to getting his “ass whooped” and promised Machida an immediate rematch, which Machida accepted if it’s what the UFC wants.
The UFC 123 co-headliner came to an abrupt end after Penn dropped Hughes with a punch in the opening seconds and quickly pounded him unconscious with punches on the ground to rebound from back-to-back losses to Frankie Edgar that had many questioning his future.
Penn jumps to 16-7-1 after successfully returning to 170-pounds for the first time since losing to welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre nearly two years ago, while Hughes drops to 45-8 with his three-fight win streak snapped and will again face questions of a potential retirement.
Also on the UFC 123 main card, Maiquel Falcao handed Gerald Harris his first UFC loss with a unanimous decision in his Octagon debut, light heavyweight prospect Phil Davis continued his rise with a second-round submission of Tim Boetsch, and George Sotiropoulos subbed Joe Lauzon to remain in title contention.
The complete results for UFC 123 were:
MAIN CARD (PPV)
- Quinton “Rampage” Jackson def. Lyoto Machida via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
- BJ Penn def. Matt Hughes via KO (punches) – Round 1, 0:21
- Maiquel Falcao def. Gerald Harris via unanimous decision (29-27, 29-28, 29-28)
- Phil Davis def. Tim Boetsch via submission (kimura) – Round 2, 2:55
- George Sotiropoulos def. Joe Lauzon via submission (kimura) – Round 2, 2:43
PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike TV)
- Brian Foster def. Matt Brown via submission (guillotine) – Round 2, 2:11
- Mark Munoz def. Aaron Simpson via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
PRELIMINARY CARD (unaired)
- Dennis Hallman def. Karo Parisyan via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 1:47
- Edson Barboza def. Mike Lullo via TKO (leg kicks) – Round 3, 0:26
- Paul Kelly def. TJ O’Brien via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 3:16
- Nik Lentz def. Tyson Griffin via split decision (29-28, 27-30, 29-28)
Latest
What? rampage won?
But wait a second, wasn’t he supposed to lose?
Oh that’s right, I DID say rampage was going
To win so I know atleast I don’t have eat my words with a side dish of some sweet crow :)
are you sure you dont wanna try some of this crow.. its delicious :)
I’ve had my share of crow but this time I get to enjoy a nice glass of “what I say” lol Ur kool Russo not many people will be humble and eat their crow like men
You do realize there is humility in victory and defeat, right?
Jazz, there was no humility in the posts telling you how off base you were for picking Rampage. Most people were relentless and slicing in their opinions about how wrong you were for picking Rampage.
Let em have it! ;)
Yes Rampage won…THE DECISION…not the fight, and he admitted as much afterwards.
Lets not get carried away…
;-)
Your the first to pick apart Rampage so I expected no less, but give the guy credit, besides the last round he was barely touched, not all of Machida’s opponents can say that.
seems you only remember round 3 lol
@lex415 -
I’m certainly not the “first to pick apart Rampage” by any means, and my analysis of him as an MMA fighter is both objective and accurate, regardless of him catching the good side of a bad decision Saturday night.
I’ll certainly give Jackson credit for performing better at 123 than he did at 114, but its not like her performed in any sort of well-rounded or atypical [for him] manner…
Falcao looks scary! His standup is lightning quick and could have easily KO ‘d Harris in the third whichs disappoints me that he was playing it safe
bj penn made my night.
really disspointed with the lauzon george fight.
move over charles oliveira Edson Barboza is here.
and yes rampage won. good night of fights
maybe machida did get screwed but its hard for me to feel sorry for him cuz he has definitley been on the winning side of a very bad decision before so i guess u can say karma is a bitch
AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE George Sotiropoulos is ready for a title shot, weathered the early storm from lauzon and came away with a beautiful submission. Karo Parisian is done looked horrible and fought the same.
Matt Hughs should probably retire, he has nothing left to prove to anybody, I dont wanna see another Chuck who fights 1 fight to many. Brilliant career no shame in losing to a fired up BJ.
Rampage pushed the action and won the decision he deserved. Machida can not expect to win a fight by avoiding everything and throwing nothing back. He should do a little more of what he did in round 3 and attack a little more and you would see no doubt anytime in any of his fights, a little more attack from Machida would go a long way. Rampage had a good game plan to cut him off and press the action fought brilliantly and id deffinatly say he won 2 of the 3 rounds.
AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE OI OI OI GO U GOOD THING
Giving Soto Siver next seems like a step backwards for Soto but that fight sounds incredible!
Yeah Rampage looked great!
Flaco looked awesome… He needs to be tested asap
I think he should fight Chris Leben. The middleweight division is packed with fighters from flacos camp so im guessing a wandy matchup is out.
Wandi isn’t w/ Chute Box anymore.
Definitely not the same BJ that fought Frankie Edgar…
One time may be but 2 times? No…..
Same BJ, just fought a slower and older fighter who has seen more wars than Frankie
I wanna see BJ Penn VS. Jon Fitch or Thiago Alves!!! And if he win either fight he should have the title shot against GSP or Koscheck….
A few things I took away from my first live event…
-Tyson Griffin was completely screwed over. He slammed Lentz 5 or 6 times, had control, imposed his will, and hurt him with his stand up.
-Lullo is lucky that Barboza chopped his leg out from under him rather than decapitate him with another head kick. Thankfully it didn’t end up like a Gallagher show.
-It was nice to see Karo not drop off and subsequently lose :)
-Simpson/Munoz, Foster/Brown, and Lauzon/Sotiropoulus had the 3 most entertaining fights
-I almost gouged my eyes out watching Harris and Falcao fight. I really liked Harris before and now he’s Detroit’s public enemy number one along with Falcao. They did their best impression of Mir and Cro Cop but maybe worse.
-I didn’t have a favorite in the Penn/Hughes fight but I was disappointed that I paid 200 dollars to see Hughes get ktfo’d 21 seconds in.
-There was all sorts of crap wrong with the Jackson decision. I was rooting for him but I honestly thought it was either a Machina win or a draw.
-Overall it was a great time and I hope they come back to Michigan in the future.
Least Mir knocked out Cro Cop! I have to agree with Joe Rogan when Falcao was saying “Chute Boxe” and he said wanderlei would be upset with such a lack luster 3rd round.
I’m jealous, still haven’t been to a live ufc. Some local shows they were good buts thats it.
Oh, and I wasn’t as impressed with Davis as I thought I would be.. Oh well, to each their own.
Rampage had first two no doubt about it and machida had the last one quinton raised his hand to be nice! and he was loopy, all that say machida won or should have YOU are the one who can’t judge a fight for shit! Sorry but ontop of that you cant expect to win a fight when you don’t fight Machida Could have one that fight if he would have fought instead of waiting till the 3rd but that would leave him open for the KOCK OUT Lets be real MACHIDA COULD NOT AND WOULD NOT take a clean shot from Jackson! EVERY FIGHT THAT ENDS IN A DECISION WONT BE RIGHT WITH ALOT OF PEOPLE ALL THE TIME CAUSE NO ONE IS BIA’S WITH THEIR DECISION! Quinton Looked GREAT!!
“you cant expect to win a fight when you don’t fight”
word
Good to see Machida lose to his own game and rampage stealing the night. You have to give the first 2 rounds to rampage, he did way more in those rounds and if Machida tried more in the mount he could have finished rampage! Even when machida rocked Rampage in the 3rd, quinton still fired back hard!
No disrespect to Hughes but he looked like a old guy falling over when penn ko’d him. When that old, its hard for the brain to take that type of punishment at 37.
I gave the fight to Machida 29-28. I felt he took at least 1 of the first 2 rounds and definitely the 3rd. I can’t complain though because the first 2 were tight. It seemed like Machida was feeling him out for the first 2 rounds, than felt comfortable in the 3rd. He took too long before he took control. If he would of took control of the 2nd round like he did the 3rd, than he probably would of kept the momentum going into the 3rd round and won be stoppage or decision.
If it was a 5 round fight than Machida could of kept that momentum going into the 4th and 5th and he would of won the fight, but it wasn’t. If they do fight again I think Machida will definitely win if he doesn’t use up so much time like he just did. I’m guessing he won’t because he’s already been in the cage with Rampage, so he’ll have a little bit of an idea from before. I also feel that Rampage needed this fight more than Machida, so the outcome is good for that reason if you’re Rampage. Same with Penn, Congraions to both and good luck to all.
What’d you just give him one of the first 2 because you like him? There was no reason those rounds should of went to Machida. He was backing up the entire time while Rampage showed more aggression and octagon control both rounds. You can’t back up and feel out the opponent for an entire around and expect to win it.
I like both of them just as much. I feel Machida won the 1st round.
or the 2nd
Well I guess I am the only one who agrees with the Rampage-Machida decision. Machida’s style cost him this fight, just as it will many more if he doesn’t start doing something different.
PS:I know I am about to get bashed for making that comment, but I don’t care what you think that’s my opinion.
I think your wrong on both points.
For one I don’t think anyone’s going to bash you for your comments Troy. Also ,trust me, your not the only one who either had Rampage winning the fight, or has no problem with the judges scoring it in his favor.
Personally I had Rampage winning the first, the second was a complete toss up imo and could’ve reasonably went either way or been a draw, and the third was all Machida. I felt this was going to be a split decision before the fight, and definitley felt that way waiting on the announcement for the winner. Me and my girl thought the judges would go with Machida, but didn’t feel he “beat” Rampage by any discernible measure.
I also have a feeling we might hear some B.S. to the effect that Machida got robbed, and hope to cut any of that nonsense off before it even gets a chance to be thrown out there. My pick for this fight was Lyoto, and as a guy who likes to gamble occasionally I put my money where my mouth was so to speak for this fight. I lost a couple of decent friendly bets on this fight, but I have absolutely no problem with the decision as the judges rendered it.
Also if anyone came out and actually tried to bash you for your comments, I got your back dude cuz I feel pretty strongly that Machida did everything except decisively win this fight.
I think its fair to assume that Machida’s reluctance to engage cost him a decision win but its my belief that it had as much to do with his last fight as it did with Rampage having one punch KO power.
I’ve alluded to the fact that it would be interesting to see how Machida’s responds from being brutalised by Shogan last time out in previous posts and last night confirmed my concerns that Machida was still mindfull of this savage beating.
I think we saw an element of this with Brock against Cain last month. Having felt the heavy hands of Carwin last time out Brock looked almost fearful of taking a shot against Cain and when he did he just cowered like a frightened child.
Well Machida is as ellusive as they come and I believe by KO’d last time out had a massive impact on his gameplan last night.
Despie giving a little back to the fans with two consecutive exciting fights I think Matt Hughes should now hang it up. Nostalgia aside, i’m not sure he any longers offers too much to modern day MMA.
Despite never being a big Hughes fan there was something slightly unpleasant seeing him get taken out in such fashion.
Agreed.
I know everyone gets caught, but it was pretty horrific seeing a fight with that much hype and history behind it end in 21 seconds.
Other than BJ Penn, I can’t imagine anyone wanted to see that fight drop that sh!tfully…
They also said that after he lost to Alves, he came back with three great wins. C’mon, he deserves more credit than that, I mean he lost to BJ Penn, not some loser.
Losing to BJ Penn is one thing.
Losing to BJ Penn, or anyone for that matter in 21 seconds, is straight embarrassing.
Given Hughes relative position within the weightclass and considering the late stage of his career, he seriously needs to consider, or maybe reconsider where he goes from here…
that was defiantly rampages fight .. i knew coming out of the first 2 he was pushing the pace and controling the octagon for pretty much all of the first 2 rounds
yes … not the most exciting fight, but still, no complaints rampage taking that w
machida rampage was one of the best fights ever. sorry either had to lose.
point wise machida, but just like any fight page has lost – he can’t be beaten, so in that sense he gets the W.
page over rashad in rematch probably
page can’t be baeten – (except by shogun)
we almost saw a slam – good on machida for getting outta there!
@ Jeremy Stephens
Sorry that some people had a different view on the fight. Stop making accusations about people not knowing how to judge. It was a split decision and could have gone either way. I viewed it in a different direction and so did you. I thought Rampage won the first, the second was close, and Machida dominated the 3rd.
Machida fought like he has the LHW belt and rampage’s job is to push him to take the belt!
I dunno, In my opinion the only reason rampage got that decision is for the rematch which just = sales. Rampage dident even think he won at the end of it and the way Joe Rogan talked about the rematch immediately when he interviewed him just seems way too planned out. I really hope Ufc stops this kinda stuff before it turns into the WWUFC.
Your post sort of suggests that the SAC guys didn’t score the fight on the level, and “pre-scored” it according to some previously agreed-upon agenda.
Not only is that illegal, but grossly unfair to all concerned.
I think the judges decision was bullsh!t, but not to the extent that I’m going to post stuff questioning anyone’s integrity, if you follow…
I don’t know – I think Rampage was as surprised as I was to get the win.
Most gratifying fight of the night was watching Parisyan get his block rocked (and cry over a quick stoppage….again).
He’s done….but then he never was much anyways.
I thought the decision was horse sh*t.
Sure Quinton won the 2nd round, but he definitely did not win that fight, regardless of what his fans or Dana White try and state after the fact.
I, like many others, gave the 1st round to Machida (with Lyoto landing numerous leg kicks successfully and making Rampage miss with almost every strike he threw). And it’s quite obvious who dominated the 3rd & most exciting round of the fight.
IMO, Rampage can be about as proud of this “win” as the Couture was in “beating” Vera…lame.
@learntoread -
I’ll agree that Jackson-Machida was controversial, but there was nothing controversial in Couture’s win over Vera.
It wasn’t pretty, nor was it anywhere close to being Couture’s finest hour, but if you rewatch the fight and time it out [as I have done] you’ll see that for nearly 12 1/2 minutes of a 15 minutes fight, Couture is manhandling, outwrestling, or dirty-boxing Vera. Couture is also the aggressor in that same timeframe.
No way Vera wins the fight for about 2 1/2 minutes of work against Couture…
in the first… rampage landed two-thirds of his strikes
I’m glad more people are starting to agree with me. IT seemed I was the only one shocked by the decision :)