Rashad “Sugar” Evans knocked Chuck Liddell out cold last night at UFC 88 in Atlanta, squashing the organizations hopes for a big money pay-per-view that would have pitted Liddell against the reigning light heavyweight titleholder Forest Griffin. The shocking finish came just before the 2 minute mark of round 2, Liddell backed Evans‘ into the cage prepping him for an uppercut, when Rashad lands one right on the sweet spot of the chin plunging the “iceman” into the deep freeze, out cold, clean and decisive. I had my money on Evans’ seeing as I’ve never understood Lidell’s success in the stand up. Chuck throws his fists high and super wide, no secrets, no special deliveries, just typical all out balls to the wall brawling. Whoever coached Evans knew what they were doing, keep it tight and fast and success will follow, good advice seeing as this sets up Evans for a title match.

Rich Franklin, tired of getting his ass beat like a red-headed step child by Anderson Silva in the middleweight division returned to smoothly handle developing fighter/wrestler Matt Hamill in the light heavyweight division. No surprises here, the referee stopped the match around the 40 second mark of the third round. Franklin, a seasoned veteran and expert kicker (he’s tall) easily put away pugster Hamill.

The Sun U.K. has a slideshow covering UFC 88

A few quick results and closing thoughts on UFC 88: Dong Hyun Kim swindled Matt Brown out of a welterweight win as all three judges scored the bout 29-28, I had that one scored for Brown. Kurt Pellegrino pounded Thiago Tavares for a win. Light heavyweight Tim Boetsch, known for dusting his opponents early in matches put away newcomer Michael Patt. Canadian veteran Jason McDonald choked out Jason Lambert with a guillotine. Dan Henderson def. Rousimar Palhares via unanimous decision, Nate Marquardt def. Martin Kampmann via TKO, 1:22 of round 1 and Ryo Chonan def. Roan Carneiro via split decision.