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LAS VEGAS — Quinton (Rampage) Jackson gave it a valiant shot. But he couldn't defend his UFC light-heavyweight title on one leg.
Forrest Griffin chopped his left leg with a vicious kick early in the second round of the mixed martial arts fight Saturday night, a kick that had Jackson wincing and lifting the muscular limb as if he has stood on a box of nails.
It set the scene for an upset win for the popular Griffin, who made the transition from reality TV star to real-life world champion at UFC 86 before a sellout of 11,172 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.
"He threw me a whammy, hurt my leg. That's what messed me up," Jackson said later.
Forrest Griffin, left, lands a kick to Quinton Jackson during their UFC light heavyweight championship in Las Vegas on Saturday. (Laura Rauch/AP)
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"I've fought K-1 fights and guys didn't do that," added Jackson, referring to the kickboxing circuit. "He just did something good. Hell, I'm going to watch the tape and see how he did that. I'm going to start kicking folks right there. That was a good strategy right there and he was smart, he went back to it."
The six-foot-three Griffin fought an intelligent fight. He used his movement, reach and kicks to slow Jackson down and then relied on his conditioning, smarts and heart to survive the champion's power shots to win.
The judges scored it 49-46, 48-46, 48-46 for Griffin, each awarding the challenger three or four of the rounds. Jackson was adjudged to have won the fourth round across the board. One judge gave him the first and another the fifth. All the rest belonged to Griffin, with two of the judges scoring the second round 10-8 for the challenger.
Jackson, 30, said he thought he had won the fight, but paid the price for letting it go to the judges. "I feel like if you're the champ, somebody got to beat the champ. But it was unanimous. I'm not a judge."
"I thought it was a really, really close fight," said heavyweight Gabriel Gonzaga, who also won on the night, "and could be a decision for both. ... I agree with the decision."
Jackson (28-7) was a 12-5 favourite coming in against Griffin (16-4). And his trainer, Juanito Ibarra, promised to retire if Griffin won.
"You know what, I didn't think Forrest could hang with me," Jackson said. "I said if Forrest gets past the third round, he'll gain my respect. And I respect him. And if I ever fight him again, I'm going to respect the hell out of him with my right hand."
The win moved Griffin from reality TV star — he won Season 1 of "The Ultimate Fighter" — to real-life champion. He now rules the UFC's top division — a rough-and-tumble 205-pound landscape filled with hard-nosed veterans like Chuck (The Iceman) Liddell and Wanderlei (The Axe Murderer) Silva and a new breed of bad men like Lyoto Machida, Keith (The Dean of Mean) Jardine, Rashad Evans and Thiago Silva.
"I'm not a feared guy but the thing is I'm going to fight you for 25 minutes," said Griffin, who quit a career in law enforcement in Georgia to become a fighter. "Whoever you are, anybody at 205. I'm not going to break. I'm not going to quit. ...
"You look at the champions, man — Anderson Silva, terrifying, B.J. Penn, terrifying — every other champion but me is pretty terrifying. I'm just a dude trying to put it together. But the one thing I've got is I'm going to fight you to the end, like a dog."
A rematch with Jackson is already in the works.
"I think we're going to have to do that again. And that sucks for me," Griffin said in the cage after the fight.
Ironically, Jackson lost his UFC title the same day that UFC president Dana White brought him the Pride Fighting Championship belt that used to belong to Dan Henderson until Jackson beat him in a unification bout last time out at UFC 75.
"I'm just going to keep fighting, I'm not going to care so much about it (the championship)," said Jackson, a father of four. "If it happens, it happens. If not, who gives a damn. As long as I'm making money, feeding my kids."
Griffin, 29, made a purse of US$250,000, including a $100,000 win bonus. Jackson collected $225,000. The purses do not necessarily contain other bonuses included in fighter contracts.
The two got another $60,000 apiece for winning fight of the night honours.
Jackson had won his last six fights after losing to Mauricio (Shogun) Rua in April 2005. Griffin beat Rua last time out.
In the co-main event, Montreal middleweight Patrick (The Predator) Cote won a split decision over Ricardo (Big Dog) Almeida. Two judges scored the mixed martial arts fight 29-28 for the Canadian while the third had it 29-28 for Almeida, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt.
"It's a big win for me," said Cote, both his eyes slightly blackened. "This win will change my life."
Cote is now slated to get a middleweight title shot against Anderson Silva, providing the champion keeps winning, later in the year,
The main event, refereed by Montreal's Yves Lavigne, was a 205-pound matchup featuring the coaches on Season 7 of "The Ultimate Fighter."
The taller Griffin came out jabbing and kicking effectively. But Jackson got his attention in the middle of the first round with a flurry and crumpled him with one minute remaining with an uppercut. Griffin survived and ended the round on his feet.
Griffin hobbled Jackson with kicks to the knee early in the second and took him down with a string of knees. He then worked elbows from half-guard, moving into side control and then mount with two minutes remaining in the round. Jackson survived the round but looked spent. An ice pack was quickly applied to his left thigh.
"I thought it was an amazing display of heart and balls," White said later. "He had no leg in that second round and he kept on coming, kept fighting."
In the third, Jackson was moving like a senior citizen after a bad night's sleep. He caught Griffin coming in but the challenger kept chopping away at his legs and body with kicks.
Jackson came out firing in the fourth and landed on top of his opponent when a Griffin attempted trip did not go as planned. Griffin locked on a triangle choke from below and Jackson tried to slam him from on high, as he did Ricardo Arona in Pride four years ago, but Griffin slipped off. Jackson loaded up on his shots as the round ended.
Griffin, blood oozing out of a cut near his eye, kept kicking and punching in the fifth, finding the range on a tiring Jackson.
Both fighters had been out of action since September, partly because of the TV show. Griffin also underwent shoulder surgery.
Jackson limped out of the arena, his arm around one of his cornermen. Griffin, meanwhile, was late arriving at the post-fight news conference after visiting the doctor.
Asked how many stitches he got, he replied: "I lost count. Way more than Quinton."
Griffin credited his training partners, like Wanderlei Silva, at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas.
"You either get better or you die or something."
NOTES — White says the UFC is looking at shows in Chicago in October and Boston in November. "I don't know where we are on that right now, but that's what we're talking about."
