By Tim Ngo, of 5thRound.com:

Unanimous decisions are supposed to be clear cut right? Then how come people started raising their eyebrows after Forrest Griffin was announced as the new UFC Light Heavyweight Champion by Bruce Buffer? Rampage was gracious in defeat after, in the Octagon as he had nothing bad to say about Griffin, but in his locker room after he said, "I can't believe they gave him [Forrest Griffin] that decision. I know I won the first, but I know I lost the second round because my leg was hurtin' real bad and I was just keeping him from damaging me a lot."

Two judges gave Griffin a 48-47 decision, while one judge was watching God knows what and gave Griffin a 49-46 decision (a virtual shutout). When you look over the fight in its entirety, maybe Jackson didn't do as much as you would've liked him to but he's the champion and as Jackson put it, "I feel like if you're the champ you know what I'm saying, you gotta beat the champ but it was unanimous. I'm not a judge."

If you look over the 5thRound.com scoring during our Play-by-Play of UFC 86, we had Jackson taking the 1st Round 10-9 after dropping Griffin badly with an uppercut.

The 2nd Round was pure domination by Griffin after he injured Jackson's leg, but Griffin didn't do any damage on the mat so nobody can score that a 10-8 so we gave Griffin 10-9.

The 3rd Round was the closest round in our opinion but in the exchanges that took place during the round, Jackson clearly got the better of them with his harder strikes. We narrowly gave Jackson the 3rd 10-9.

In the 4th Round, Jackson scored an early takedown and was able to cut Griffin over his right eye. Griffin did nearly catch Rampage in a triangle choke but Jackson was easily able to escape with a mini-powerbomb. When they got back on their feet towards the end of the round, Griffin was more active but he had spent too much time on his back after getting taken down. Jackson took the 4th Round 10-9.

The 5th and deciding round felt more like the 1st with both fighters trying to feel each other out with strikes. Not much to note in the round other than Griffin being more active and landing more strikes. Griffin took the 5th Round 10-9.

In our scoring, Jackson should've won the fight 48-47 but like they always say, you can't leave it in the judge's hands. Don't forget though, you have to actually take the title from the champ as well. So is the champ REALLY here?

---

Enjoy this news? Members get free email alerts on breaking news, rumors, events and win monthly prizes! >> Sign up for free membership <<