Evans claims UFC light heavyweight title

Rashad Evans has never known what it’s like to leave the Octagon a loser.

He still doesn’t.

Evans was seeking to stay undefeated Saturday night and take Forrest Griffin’s Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight title. A big right hand in the third round dropped Griffin and, after pounding his opponent, Evans earned a technical knockout victory and the UFC title in front of 14,103 at the MGM Grand Garden.

In the other two featured bouts, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson scored a first-round TKO of Brazil's Wanderlei Silva in their scheduled three-round light heavyweight bout, and Frank Mir stopped Antonio Nogueira with a second-round TKO to win the UFC interim heavyweight title and earn a shot at current UFC world champ Brock Lesnar.

For Evans, who had won the second season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” his victory Saturday over Griffin, who had won the inaugural season of the reality TV series, established him as one of the UFC’s biggest stars.

“It took me a while to warm up, but I got there,” said Evans, who stayed undefeated in improving to 18-0-1. “I didn’t want to come in with just one mindset because that’s when you can get yourself in trouble. I tried to give myself as many options as possible. Forrest is a great fighter and it was a great fight.

“I’m ready to take on all comers. I knew my mindset would have to change once I won the belt.”

Griffin looked to use his legs early in an effort to get Evans off his feet. But Evans was able to handle the blows and countered with a couple of left hands to Griffin’s face.

Griffin continued his kicking tactics, momentarily knocking Evans off balance early in the second round. But Evans managed to remain standing.

In the second round, Griffin mauled Evans with several knee thrusts. The crowd came to its feet, sensing the champ was on the verge of victory.

Once again, Evans survived the attack. But he got nailed by a big right hand from Griffin just as the second round was ending. It appeared Griffin was on his way to victory. He was leading on all three judges’ scorecards as the third round began.

But Griffin may have went to the well once too often with his kicks. Evans blocked a thrust early in the round, finally took Griffin to the ground and started hammering away.

“The ground-and-pound was effective,” Evans said of his coup de grace maneuver. “I was on him and his guard was loose. He was letting me hit him and I was saying to myself, ‘Dang, he’s hurt.’ I thought I rocked him, but Forrest was tough.”

Griffin sustained tremendous punishment, and referee Steve Mazzagatti decided Griffin had had enough, stopping the bout at the 2:46 mark. Griffin didn’t have a problem with the decision.

“I didn’t know what was going on at that point,” said Griffin, who fell to 16-5 with Saturday’s loss. “I think I was hurt when I went down but I honestly don’t remember much after that.”

No fight on the 10-bout card had the bad blood that existed between Silva and Jackson. The two have a feud going back to their days of competing in the PRIDE organization in Japan, and their mutual dislike for each other manifested itself during their bout Saturday.

It started out as a chess match as both fighters displayed good defense. Silva tried to take Jackson down with a sweeping kick to the back of Jackson’s left leg, but Jackson absorbed the blow. With less than two minutes to go in the opening round, Jackson unleashed a huge left hook that caught Silva flush on the chin.

Silva went down in a heap, and before Jackson could pounce on him and rain blows on his head, referee Yves Lavigne stepped in and stopped the bout at 3:21.

It was sweet revenge for Jackson on a couple of fronts. Not only did he avenge two previous losses to Silva, he also showed he wasn’t through after he had lost his UFC light heavyweight belt to Griffin on July 5 and was arrested 10 days later in Orange County, Calif., after crashing his truck into a couple of cars and leading police on a chase.

“Whooo, I’ve been waiting a long time for this. Rampage is back!” exulted Jackson, who improved to 29-7. “The last time I fought here, I wasn’t right. So I went to the Wolfslair (training center in England) and got my wolf on. It was the best thing I ever did.

“This guy destroyed me twice. I had to train really hard, but I knew I could beat him.”

Silva (32-9-1), who had knocked Jackson out twice before, never saw the big punch coming.

He was taken to Valley Hospital as a precaution and did not attend the postfight news conference.

Mir tried to emulate Jackson’s performance. He sent Nogueira to the canvas three times in the first round, each time dropping him with a big left hand. However, he was unable to finish the Brazilian early as Nogueira showed a tough chin.

But Nogueira could absorb only so much punishment. Early in the second round, he got hit with yet another Mir left. This time, he stayed down as Mir mauled him and, with Nogueira unable to protect himself, referee Herb Dean stepped in and stopped it at 1:54.

“I was never more afraid than I was entering the cage (Saturday),” said Mir (12-3), who was a 4-1 underdog. “Nogueira’s a phenomenal fighter. I had no idea it wouldn’t go five rounds and, if I did, I figured to be on the short end of it.”

He figured wrong. It was one of Mir’s finest performances in the Octagon, as he dropped Noguieria to 31-5-1. Now he'll get another crack at Lesnar, whom he defeated last by submission on Feb. 2. It is Lesnar’s lone loss in his brief UFC career.

“Lesnar has the belt,” Mir said. “I don’t want to be a half-champion. But I never looked past Nogueira. This was the toughest fight of my life and now I can focus on Lesnar. I told him after the fight, ‘Be careful what you wish for.’ ”