Quinton “Rampage” Jackson was the man of the hour as he was awarded a split decision victory over Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida Saturday night in the UFC 123 main event in Auburn Hills, Mich.
Although Machida dominated the third round, Jackson was the aggressor and got the better of the punching exchanges in rounds one and two. Jackson said after the fight, to be fair to Machida, he thinks they should have an immediate rematch.
There were actually two superstars shining brightly following UFC 123. B.J. Penn scored a 21-second knockout of former welterweight champion and rubber-match rival Matt Hughes.
Fight Night Bonuses – $80,000 each
- Phil Davis – Submission of the Night
- BJ Penn – Knockout of the Night
- George Sotiropoulos, Joe Lauzon – Fight of the Night
It was a fairly short press conference but here are some notes:
George Sotiropoulos
George Sotiropoulos went to the hospital after the fight to get his eye checked out. Apparently, it was okay.
White confirmed George will fight in Sydney versus Dennis Siver.
BJ Penn
BJ Penn said acupuncture helped him out a lot for this fight. I want to get back in as soon as possible. I want to fight a lot more.
I always said welterweights are stronger and slower and lightweights are faster but not as strong.
Quinton Jackson
It’s different fighting Machida than watching him. I got more respect for his style. I wish I could move that good. I wouldn’t want to watch it though.
It was really tough to stay in my gameplan. I concentrated on cutting off the cage…
Phil Davis
Joe called it the Mr. Wonderful, we gotta rock with that, we can’t change it (talking about his submission). I didn’t expect to sub him at all.
Mark Munoz
I trained with Aaron. I knew he was going to come hard and I was ready for a three round war.
Brian Foster
He said the short notice did not affect him. Foster said he heard Matt Brown had talked some trash about him before the fight and really wanted to punch him in the face. It was quite obvious there was a lot of emotion in that fight.
Dana White
Dana White said they will definitely come back to Detroit.
Said they will probably do 30 or 31 fights next year.
Somebody asked Dana if he thinks the UFC will ever be bigger than the WWF in their heyday. Dana said they will be bigger than everyone.
Watch the archive video of the UFC 123 press conference which will remain available for the next few days in our UFC Room.