UFC President Dana White

In a recent interview with ESPN.com UFC President Dana White revealed that UFC 92, which featured Rashad Evans vs. Forrest Griffin, Frank Mir vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and Quinton Jackson vs. Wanderlei Silva, “crushed” UFC 91, which was headlined by Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Couture.

Here’s an excerpt from the interview where White discusses the performance of the UFC’s latest event:

What are the ramifications of a Georges St.-Pierre win against BJ Penn? And what if Penn wins?

I’m not worried about that; I’m worried about the fight itself. I think it’s going to be the biggest fight we’ve ever done. The last Lesnar pay-per-view did really well, and then our Dec. 27 show crushed it.

When you say it crushed it, are we talking a million buys for Griffin/Evans?

I don’t want to get into numbers too much—that’s our policy. But it crushed it. I’ll say this: The Christmas show crushed the Lesnar fight by 150,000-175,000 buys.

Were you surprised by that?

No, I wasn’t surprised; I was happy. I was f’ing thrilled. We lowballed our preflight estimates on that card and were blown away. I think what happened was two things. One, it was a kick-ass card. Two, I think we were a little off because of the holidays. I guess everybody thought, you’re burnt out by everything, what do you want to do? You want to get back together with your buddies and watch some fights. We were crapping our pants when the calendar came up when we saw the last Saturday of the year fell two days after Christmas. Then the economy went down. We didn’t know exactly what to expect. But we were surprised by how well it did.

UFC 91 reportedly did between 850,000 and 1 million buys which means UFC 92 almost assuredly broke the 1 million buy threshold and likely surpassed the 1.05 million buys generated by UFC 66, which boasted proven pay-per-view headliners Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz, making UFC 92 the most-purchased event in the promotion’s history.

Forrest Griffin

11 of the 20 fighters who were in action at UFC 92 have been issued medical suspensions by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

The December 27th event took place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas in front of a crowd of 14,166 (9,701 paid), which generated a live gate of $3,468,440 million.

The suspensions included:

• Forrest Griffin must have left hand x-rayed & cleared by orthopedic doctor or no contest until 06/27/09; minimum suspension no contest until 02/12/09 with no contact until 01/28/09
• Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira suspended until 02/27/09 with no contact until 02/12/09
• Mike Massenzio suspended until 01/28/09 with no contact until 01/19/09
• Wanderlei Silva suspended until 02/27/09 with no contact until 02/12/09
• Mostapha Al-Turk must clear broken nose w/ ENT doctor or no contest until 06/27/09; minimum suspension no contest until 02/27/09; no contact until 02/12/09 lacerations over left eye & on top of head
• Mike Wessel suspended until 02/12/09 with no contact until 01/28/09
• Matt Hamill suspended until 02/12/09 with no contact until 01/28/09  due to a cut under left eye
• Reese Andy must have a CT Scan of face to rule out orbital fracture and doctor’s clearance or no contest until 06/27/09; minimum suspension no contest until 02/27/09 with no contact until 02/12/09.
• Brad Blackburn must be cleared by a neurologist for left arm tingling/numbness before next fight and also must clear nasal fracture with ENT doctor or no contest until 06/27/09; minimum suspension no contest until 02/12/09 with no contact until 01/28/09
• Dan Evensen must have orthopedic clearance on his left knee or no contest until 06/27/09; minimum suspension no contest until 01/28/09 with no contact until 01/19/09
• Patrick Barry suspended until 01/28/09 with no contact until 01/19/09 due to a  right elbow injury

Additionally, the NSAC drug tested 12 fighters who participated on the UFC 92 card. Tested were Forrest Griffin, Rashad Evans, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Frank Mir, Brad Blackburn, Matt Hamill, Antoni Hardonk, Yushin Okami, Cheick Kongo, Quinton Jackson, CB Dolloway, and Patrick Barry.

Quinton "Rampage" Jackson

The Nevada State Athletic Commission has released the official fighter salaries for UFC 92 and former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, who posted a first-round knockout of Wanderlei Silva on the evening’s main card, was the event’s top earner, taking home $385,000 for his victory.

UFC 92 “The Ultimate 2008″ took place on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and aired live on pay-per-view.

Newly crowned Interim Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir received a total of $90,000, compared to former champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, who earned $250,000 for his first-ever stoppage loss.

The total disclosed payroll for the event was $1,381,000.

The official salaries do not include bonuses and also exclude taxes, fees, sponsor payments, and other miscellaneous payments and fees.

UFC 92 Official Fighter Salaries

• Rashad Evans ($130,000 – includes $65,000 win bonus) def. Forrest Griffin ($100,000)
• Frank Mir ($90,000 – includes $45,000 win bonus) def. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira ($250,000)
• C.B. Dollaway ($20,000 – includes $10,000 win bonus) def. Mike Massenzio ($5,000)
• Quinton Jackson ($325,000 – includes $100,000 win bonus) def. Wanderlei Silva ($200,000)
• Cheick Kongo ($90,000 – includes $45,000 win bonus) def. Mostapha Al Turk ($7,000)
• Yushin Okami ($32,000 – includes $16,000 win bonus) def. Dean Lister ($19,000)
• Antoni Hardonk ($28,000 – includes $14,000 win bonus) def. Mike Wessel ($4,000)
• Matt Hamill ($20,000 – includes $10,000 win bonus) def. Reese Andy ($15,000)
• Brad Blackburn ($14,000 – includes $7,000 win bonus) def. Ryo Chonan ($18,000)
• Patrick Barry ($10,000 – incl. $5,000 win bonus) def. Dan Evensen ($4,000)

Frank Mir

Lots to talk about so let’s get to it: “The Ultimate 2008” delivered and delivered huge. The order of the bouts was all over the place but I can’t complain. The show was well paced and absolutely packed with fireworks and surprises. Kudos to the UFC for capping off the New Year strong.

Upset of the year? Try upset of the decade.

Wow.

I can’t really think of a better phrase to sum up my thoughts on Frank Mir dominating Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira the way he did. Wow.

Just…Wow.

It’s not as if Rashad Evans, Quinton Jackson, Cheick Kongo and the rest of the winning crew weren’t equally impressive last night. But given the odds, the storyline, and the worldwide general consensus, Frank Mir’s performance absolutely stole the show, and for anyone who thinks otherwise- think again about what Frank Mir just accomplished.

Flashback: Frank Mir was lucky enough to pull out a knee bar/heel hook against an inexperienced Brock Lesnar, who was absolutely destroying his face until said submission transpired. Prior to that, Mir had only a few select “impress you” moments, and many more “maybe he isn’t so great” moments, peppered between victories over underwhelming heavyweights and devastating losses to Marcio Cruz and Brandon Vera. And before all of that, Mir was involved in a horrific motorcycle accident which should have ended his career (they wanted to amputate his leg.)

Now I, along with almost every other person in the MMA universe, am officially dining on crow. Not only did most of us suckas pick Mir to lose based on sheer aptitude, but Mir seemed to bet against himself in every interview leading up to the fight. When coming up with the prediction in my head, I ultimately concluded every time “Nope, Mir can’t win a striking exchange, a grappling match, Jenga, or any other type of contest over Nogueira. Nogueira has also never been finished and Mir has terrible cardio. He simply cannot win. Smart bet Eric, you deserve that last snickerdoodle.”

And then what happens? Frank Mir comes out with crisp boxing, solid in and out combinations, forces Minotauro to fight his fight, and moves in for the kill without getting caught in one of Nogueira’s famous back from the dead submissions. Wow, indeed. My hats off to anyone who bet the house on Mir.

Now that Mir has screwed up the anticipated Nogueira/Lesnar match, we the people are treated to Mir/Lesnar 2 for the heavyweight unification title. I’ll be honest, before last night’s upset I probably would have picked Brock over Mir in a second encounter between the two, but now it looks like Mir has the rejuvenated upper hand. Either way, the UFC can at least promote a decent fight as Mir already commenced the Lesnar antagonizing shortly after his big win last night. I can’t say I blame him. It has to be quite a rush to stop someone who has never been stopped in 38 fights by even the stiffest of competition.

As for one Minotauro Nogueira, the future seems pretty wide open. With the UFC’s HW division having a lot of up and comers but much less top 5 competition, it shouldn’t take Nogueira more than a couple of wins to get back into title contention. Bouts against one of the UFC’s heavyweight prospects are a possibility, but I think now might be the time to put Nogueira in there with Randy Couture, assuming Couture is up to it. Despite Couture’s age and Nogueira losing a little bit of luster, Couture/Nogueira could still make for a strong non-title main event for a future pay-per-view.

Rashad Evans has to be a happy man. The undersized perpetual underdog, Rashad gave up 4 inches in height to Forrest Griffin and was losing the bulk of the standing exchanges rather convincingly. But Evans wasn’t about to let himself get pummeled and risk a decision, and instead continued sticking combinations until a nice shot brought Forrest to the canvas where Evans put the original Ultimate Fighter away for good. I think, or at least hope, that some of the Rashad haters will see a different light now that Evans isn’t solely relying on his wrestling and laying n’ praying his way toward victory.

However, I would be remiss if I did not make mention of one glaring issue from last nights light-heavyweight contest: Rashad’s cardio looked damn near destroyed as he was trying to finish off Griffin. I guess that kind of pace and “explosiveness” really does take its toll. But there is no way Evans can defend that belt for very long if he isn’t prepared to rock and roll for 25 minutes. I can only assume that Greg Jackson is already on this matter.

Also, I am a little upset that I didn’t catch the infamous Jackson-camp nipple tweak, did anyone else?

Quinton Jackson is back…we think.

In a fashion similar to his dispatching of Chuck Liddell, Rampage managed to place a well timed hook directly on the ‘go to sleep’ button of Wanderlei Silva. This absolutely has to be just as much an internal victory for Jackson as well as a tangible one. So is Rampage back? Who knows. Jackson’s victory was so hard and swift that we weren’t able to find out how the rest of his arsenal is looking, though we can only assume that his camp (Wolfslair) is keeping him up to standard. We can also only assume that Jackson’s head is alas in the right place, and that he is just as mentally ready to maintain his climb back to the top. Though no one other than Jackson and a select few really have any idea.

Now what, you say? Rampage vs. Rashad Evans would make for an excellent fight stylistically, and word has it that Dana wants him to challenge Evans as soon as possible- although Jackson apparently still wants his revenge with Forrest Griffin. I thought it made more sense to have Jackson fight the winner of Lyoto Machida/Thiago Silva for the number one contender spot, but I guess that would keep Rashad on the shelf for too long. And keeping a champion out of competition for extended periods of time is definitely a trend the UFC should work to avoid.

The inevitable question is can Rashad successfully defend against Machida, Thiago or Jackson? Off the top of my head- Rashad loses all three of those fights, but I would nonetheless pay to see any one of them to find out.

Wanderlei Silva on the other hand has a much less predictable future ahead. Since returning to the UFC, Silva has lost a tough battle to Chuck Liddell, destroyed Keith Jardine, and been floored by old foe Rampage. Prior to that Silva was knocked unconscious in consecutive losses to Dan Henderson and Mirko Cro Cop. That’s a lot of MRI’s for anyone. But Silva has stated that he wishes to continue fighting for a good while, and I imagine the UFC will keep the Axe Muderer on the roster so long as that is the case. Wanderlei still has a very marketable name, and even if he isn’t the one doing the bashing, his style is just too exciting to let work for the competition. An immediate thought of Silva vs. Griffin just danced in my head; perhaps it will become a reality…

Cheick Kongo is a sprawling machine. While his ground game has much to be desired, it really doesn’t matter when you can out-muscle even the strongest attackers. Though a more natural, well sized grappler, Mustapha Al Turk just couldn’t get the mountain that is Kongo down where he needed to. Given that the pickings are generally slim, Kongo probably deserves a slot somewhere in the newly reformed heavyweight title picture, but it might be a while before Dana can pencil him in. Patience Kongo, patience…

C.B. Dollaway is better than I would like to admit. He comes off like a Varsity Blues stereotype and got armbar’d twice consecutively by the same guy. He also has a lame voice. But past all of that, Dollaway showed legitimate skill in his quick dispatching of Mike Massenzio. Dollaway avoided serious guillotine trouble and a minor triangle threat en route to a strong TKO victory. I still don’t like him, but the kid can at least hold his own.

Given, Dan Evensen has never done anything remotely impressive since coming to the UFC, but Pat Barry put a striking clinic on him the likes of which hasn’t been seen since Bas Rutten tuned up Ruben Villareal. Assuming Barry puts serious time in on his ground game (remember Pat this is MMA now, not K-1) he could become a contender sooner than later. But the ground game needs work…seriously Pat. We will enjoy watching you make people look foolish standing up, but you will only look twice as foolish if you turn into a heavyweight Houston Alexander.

Does anyone else find it strange that Matt Hamill didn’t use his wrestling more? I love to see fighters get TKO’d just as much as the next guy, but I feel like Hamill could have ended things earlier had he wanted to out grapple Reese Andy and sink in a submission. Ah well. Hamill still looked great while Andy’s UFC contract is likely in serious Jeopardy.

Antoni Hardonk knows some jiujitsu. That will definitely prove helpful in future MMA bouts. Newcomer Mike Wessel didn’t really show much of a reason to be kept around, but he is a heavyweight so he could be used as fodder for one of the better up and comers in the division.

While I thought it strange to relegate Yushin Okami vs. Dean Lister to the unaired portion, it looks like the UFC made the right call- as all of the liveblogs I read described the contest as little more than a snooze-fest. Furthermore, Yushin Okami has won yet another fight in the UFC against solid competition. So what the heck does he do now? He can’t get a shot at The Spyder any time soon and other contenders will probably have a tough time getting one over on him. Oh Yushin, you’re just too good for your own good. Maybe you should grab a beer with Lyoto Machida.

Unrelated notes: My buddy Willis, who doesn’t know anything about anything, picked Mir to win at the bar last night, despite all of my screaming and violent hand gestures. Boy was my face red.

Also, to the trashy drunk chick behind me who was shouting at her boyfriend for 20 minutes: We all get that you are hammered and hate when people “talk shit” on you, and we get that you think you are really hot, but please take your thousand-decibel drunken tirade outside or to the bathroom or something. Despite your rampant need for attention, there are some of us here who just want to watch the fights. I know, crazy right?

Rashad Evans

• UFC President Dana White announced at the post-UFC 92 press conference that Anderson Silva will “probably” fight Thales Leites in the main event of UFC 97 on April 18th in Montreal, Canada.
• What lies ahead for Quinton “Rampage” Jackson remains unknown following his UFC 92 knockout of rival Wanderlei Silva. White indicated during the post-event press conference that Jackson is likely to fight newly-crowned light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans next, while Jackson is also believed to be eyeing a rematch with Forrest Griffin, who claimed the title from Jackson in July but lost it to Evans in last night’s main event.
• White also announced at the press conference that 14,103 fans filled the MGM Grand Garden Arena for UFC 92, generating a $3.47 million live gate.
• Forrest Griffin suffered a broken hand during his main event loss to Rashad Evans and went to a hospital after the fight for treatment. Details on the injury aren’t yet known, including when the injury was suffered, the severity of the injury, and how long Griffin will have to be off before resuming training and ultimately returning to the octagon.
• Rashad Evans, Forrest Griffin, and Quinton Jackson each earned $60,000 “fight night” bonuses for their performances last night at UFC 92. Evans and Griffins won “Fight of the Night” honors for their exciting, standup-dominated headliner while Jackson was awarded “Knockout of the Night” for his first-round knockout of Wanderlei Silva. No “Submission of the Night” bonus was awarded as the ten-bout card failed to have a single bout finished via submission.
• Keith Jardine and Chuck Liddell will not fight at UFC 96 in Columbus, Ohio, leaving the March 7th event without a main event-quality matchup. Though Jardine will still be in action on the card against an unnamed opponent, a light heavyweight championship bout between new title-holder Rashad Evans and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson or a heavyweight championship unification matchup featuring Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir is likely to headline UFC 96.

UFC 92 The Ultimate 2008 Poster

Welcome to MMAFrenzy.com’s live coverage of UFC 92: The Ultimate 2008, which took place on Saturday December 27th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and airs live on pay-per-view.

MMAFrenzy.com provided live results from the ten-bout card, which was headlined by a light heavyweight championship bout as current title-holder Forrest Griffin took on challenger Rashad Evans. Interim UFC heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira put his title on the line in the evening’s co-main event against former champion Frank Mir and light heavyweights Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Wanderlei Silva squared off for the third time in UFC 92’s other featured matchups.

MMAFrenzy.com’s live coverage of UFC 92: The Ultimate 2008, which has concluded, is after the jump…

UFC 92: The Ultimate 2008 Results

• Rashad Evans def. Forrest Griffin (c) via TKO (strikes) — Round 3, 2:46
  UFC Light Heavyweight Championship
• Frank Mir def. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (c) via TKO (strikes) — Round 2, 1:54
  Interim UFC Heavyweight Championship
• C.B. Dollaway def. Mike Massenzio via TKO (strikes) — Round 1, 3:01
• Quinton Jackson def. Wanderlei Silva vis KO (punch) — Round 1, 3:21
• Cheick Kongo def. Mustafa Al-Turk via TKO (strikes) — Round 1, 4:37
• Yushin Okami def. Dean Lister via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Antoni Hardonk def. Mike Wessel via TKO (strikes) — Round 2, 2:09
• Matt Hamill def. Reese Andy via TKO (strikes) — Round 2, 2:19
• Brad Blackburn def. Ryo Chonan via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Patrick Barry def. Dan Evensen via TKO (injury) — Round 1, 2:36