[Suizida]

Skip to the bottom if you want to see the classic fights

"Rampage" Jackson recreates history at "UFC 2009 Undisputed" U.S. preview
by John Morgan on May 09, 2009 at 6:25 pm ET
AGOURA HILLS, Calif. - UFC light heavyweight Quinton "Rampage" Jackson was in peak form in the moments before his Friday afternoon bout with UFC champion Chuck Liddell.

"I'm going to whoop his ass," Jackson said of Liddell. "Same thing I did to him the first time. ... When the time comes, I'm going to break the ice. You feel me? That's what I do. I'm the ice-breaker."

Of course, this time "Rampage" wasn't at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Jackson was at THQ's headquarters for the final preview event for "UFC 2009 Undisputed." But that didn't mean the former UFC champ was any less focused.

Jackson was there to show off the game's "Classic Fights" feature. "UFC 2009 Undisputed" producer Neven Dravinski explained the play mode.

"We allow you to pick 12 fights that have happened in UFC history, and we do a lot of extra presentation on it," Dravinski said. "We have Rachelle Leah, who was one of the previous octagon girls of the UFC, introduce each fight. ... Not only will we be introducing it with Rachelle, but we have the actual pre-fight montage from the UFC broadcast as part of the presentation.

"It's just a little cool extra something to leverage our stuff that we get from the UFC and kind of just give you an insight into the past and creation of these characters."

Jackson was at THQ to relive his UFC 71 main-event bout with Liddell, the night "Rampage" claimed the UFC's light-heavyweight title.

Jackson was immediately impressed with his character model. Mostly.

"I look ripped," Jackson said. "I'm all fat as hell right now, but look at that boy. He's sexy. Except for that fat-ass jaw. I look like a black-ass chipmunk."

Jackson immediately devalued his own virtual build when the screen turned to Liddell's introduction.

"Ya'll gave Chuck a six-pack?" Jackson asked Dravinski. "Ya'll are generous around here. Chuck looks good as hell. He hadn't looked like that since he was 15 (years old)."

Once the action got underway, Jackson lived up to his end of the bargain. Just as in the original May 2007 contest, Liddell met the canvas in the opening frame. Jackson did little to hide his enthusiasm for the repeat performance.

"Where your mouthpiece at?" Jackson yelled at the screen. "Where your mouthpiece at?"

Once the thrill of victory had waned, Jackson said he was happy with the final look and feel of the soon-to-be-released game.

"I knew [THQ] was going to do a good job," Jackson said. "I'm very pleased with this game.

"I'm going to play with myself all the time, now. I mean, uh, I'm going to play with my character."

The UFC and PRIDE veteran did have one significant complaint about his character that he believes THQ may have gotten wrong.

"[The game] did me justice, but [THQ] didn't give me no head kicks because they said I ain't never kicked nobody in the head in a fight," Jackson said. "But they don't come to my practice. Why don't they come to my practice and see I kick folks in the head – little short people.

"If they'll get on their knees, I'll kick them in the head."

Jackson, who considers himself an avid gamer, said he looks forward to "playing with himself" online. While "Rampage" admitted he still needs to reconnect his Xbox 360 after a recent move, the former light heavyweight champ said he'll be available for matchups via an Xbox Live Gamertag of "RampagexUFCx."

Is it in the game?

Further demonstrations of "UFC 2009 Undisputed" by the THQ staff showed that three different familiar faces will be seen as in-game referees. Herb Dean, Steve Mazzagatti and Mario Yamasaki will take turns managing the action.

That's Mazzagatti with-the-mustache, by the way.

"It's very important to note it's Mazzagatti with-the-mustache," Dravinski said.

One iconic figure of the UFC will not make an appearance in "UFC 2009 Undisputed" – longtime MMA referee and former UFC employee "Big" John McCarthy.

Dravinski told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) the decision was made through cooperation with the UFC to exclude McCarthy from the final product.

"It's kind of a UFC thing," Dravinski said. "We went to them. We basically scanned as many people as we could, and then we made the decision with them, 'Who are we going to feature in this year's game?'

"'Big' John hadn't been working for [the UFC] recently, so we decided not to go with him."

McCarthy last officiated a UFC bout in December of 2007.

The final number of playable characters in "UFC 2009 Undisputed" has also been a hot topic with gamers and fans waiting for the May 19 release of the heavily anticipated game.

Published advertisements for an upcoming strategy guide produced independently by BradyGames have advertised "complete stats, bios, and strategic analysis" on "all 96 fighters." THQ insisted the final game will have 82 playable fighters, and three bonus playable "UFC-oriented personalities" with the previously reported inclusion of "Mask," "Punkass" and "Skyscrape" from the TapouT crew.

The "UFC 2009 Undisputed" producer insisted he had no idea where BradyGames came up with the idea that 96 characters would be available for gameplay.

"I saw that (advertisement), too," Dravinski said. "I don't know what that's all about. That might be including the (THQ created, lower-tier) guys we had in career mode. They might have double-counted the guys that can switch weight classes. I don't know."

Additional previously published reports credited UFC President Dana White with promising MMA pioneer Royce Gracie as a character in the game. Dravinski deemed that to also be incorrect.

"[White] was incorrect in that assessment," Dravinski said.

"UFC Undisputed 2009" will be released May 19 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

"UFC Undisputed 2009" Classic Fights
TUF 1 Finale: Stephan Bonnar vs. Forrest Griffin
UFN 6: Karo Parisyan vs. Diego Sanchez
UFC 66: Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz II
UFC 71: Chuck Liddell vs. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson
UFC 76: Forrest Griffin vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua
UFC 77: Anderson Silva vs. Rich Franklin II
UFC 79: Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva
UFC 79: Georges St. Pierre vs. Matt Hughes III
UFC 80: B.J. Penn vs. Joe Stevenson
UFC 82: Anderson Silva vs. Dan Henderson
UFC 83: Matt Serra vs. Georges St. Pierre
UFC 84: B.J. Penn vs. Sean Sherk

http://mmajunkie.com/news/14828/ramp...-s-preview.mma

Some are good, some aren't. BJ v Stevenson shouldn't be there,
Forrest v Rampage should
Rampage v Hendo should
BJ v GSP 2 should definetally be there
GSP v Fitch maybe

[FunkYou]

Is it just me or are those "classic" fights mostly just one sided beat downs that happened to be for the title?

[Jack]

Originally Posted by FunkYou

Is it just me or are those "classic" fights mostly just one sided beat downs that happened to be for the title?

Yeah, like 8/12 fit that description pretty well:

UFC 66: Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz II
UFC 71: Chuck Liddell vs. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson
UFC 77: Anderson Silva vs. Rich Franklin II
UFC 79: Georges St. Pierre vs. Matt Hughes III
UFC 80: B.J. Penn vs. Joe Stevenson
UFC 82: Anderson Silva vs. Dan Henderson
UFC 83: Matt Serra vs. Georges St. Pierre
UFC 84: B.J. Penn vs. Sean Sherk

[FunkYou]

And of the remaining four I would only class Karo - Diego as a classic.

Chuck-wandy was just a fun brawl as was Forrest-Bonnar (although the impact of the latter probably moves it to near classic status).

Forrest - Shogun is not and never has been a classic.

so that makes 2 out of twelve fights being actual classics. FAIL.

[MilesHackett]

I am so tired of Griffin/Bonnar being fellated all the time. We get it, it was important, but there have been MUCH better fights in the UFC.

[Jack]

Yeah exactly, at the time it was good cos of what it meant to the two people in the ring, it was clear you had two dudes giving it there absolute all and running on pure heart.

On the rewatch however it's just a decent slugfest, an okay punchy face fight but nothing more. I would call it a poor mans Frye - Takayama but it doesn't even warrant that TBH.

I actually enjoyed their second fight more on the rewatch, I dunno why but for some reason I kind of dig Griffin - Bonnar 2.

[bbjd7]

Yea I feel like maybe THQ should get some help picking their greatest fights because the ones they picked sucked.

[Ray Kanne]

Originally Posted by FunkYou

Forrest - Shogun is not and never has been a classic.

Agreed. What, have they made a separate craptastic simulated Shogun with the injury for this particular fight? He'll be limping around having trouble breathing? This is actually a bit disgraceful to Shogun who was seriously hurt going in to the fight. That stuff does not make for a classic fight.

It doesn't make sense to me at all. That's like including Bisping versus Leben as a classic fight with a souped up roided edition of Leben with absurdly high stats for you to beat with the regular Bisping character.

[e-thug]

Originally Posted by bbjd7

Yea I feel like maybe THQ should get some help picking their greatest fights because the ones they picked sucked.

Do you really think THQ had any say in the "classic" fight portion?

You also got to think, they could only use the playable characters for the "classic" fight portion aswell.

[Aaron]

Keegman talking under Aaron's account:

I think that 2 or 3 of those fights should be replaced. The Diego fight

for sure and the BJ fight with Joe. I didn't see any Heavyweight fights

like the Miroko Cro Cop vs Gabriel Gonzoga. That fight should easily be

in the game.