Jardine's win throws wrench in UFC's plans
Dave Meltzer
FOXSports.com, Updated 14 hours ago STORY TOOLS:

When Keith Jardine was told by his manager that UFC matchmaker Joe Silva wanted him to fight Chuck Liddell in a pay-per-view main event, he thought somebody was playing a practical joke.

He had just come off a loss to Houston Alexander in 48 seconds, and even though he attributed the decision to simply getting caught, he didn't think it helped his career any.
"There was no question I was taking the fight," said Jardine, 32, who could have made as little as $7,000 for taking on the man billed as the most feared light heavyweight striker in the company. "After the (Alexander) fight, they could have done anything with me."

Jardine earned double that amount with his winner's bonus against a man who earned $500,000 in the loss.

But nobody is complaining.

"Fourteen-thousand is what he got," said manager John Madrid. "If he's bonused, that's up to Dana White. We don't expect it. If he would have lost, he really would have made only $7,000. He signed a four-year deal. Even if it was only a handshake deal, he would have accepted it because that's the type of person he is."

Then there's this question: Had Jardine beaten Alexander, would he have been picked for the match with Liddell? Given the circumstances, there's actually a good shot he would have been. He was the pick of four potential choices at the time.

Lyoto Machida, the unbeaten Japanese-Brazilian fighter, was not as well known and has a more technical style. Putting him in the Octagon with Liddell would risk a boring main event and would be a tough sell. At least regular UFC fans know Jardine, with his catchy nickname "The Dean of Mean," and unique look with the goatee and bald head.

Mauricio "Shogun" Rua was on paper a better opponent, but the feeling was that Rua vs. Liddell could be a monster match once Rua makes a name with the U.S. audience. Putting it on as Rua's first match didn't make much sense long term. Of course, in such an unpredictable sport, building fights for the long term seems to rarely work out.

Kazuhiro Nakamura was the worst of both worlds. The UFC audience didn't know him, making it a hard sell as the main event, and he didn't figure to put on as exciting a fight with Liddell as Jardine.

Of the three, the one Liddell had the best chance stylistically of beating would have been Nakamura, but he'd also have been the worst person to put in a pay-per-view main event. The UFC was looking for someone who wanted to stand and strike for an exciting match. The term "safe match" doesn't exist at this level of MMA.

But the Liddell loss eliminated the possibility of him challenging Quinton Jackson for the UFC light heavyweight title early next year. That will probably cost the company $8 million, perhaps significantly higher because it eliminates a possible record-setting show had Liddell followed a win over Jardine with one over Wanderlei Silva.

Jardine has never been heavily promoted as a top star, and his choice as Liddell's opponent led to some heavy criticism. The idea was that the UFC was trying to give Liddell an easy win, but if there's anything this year has taught us, it's that when you have two fighters of that caliber, there are no guarantees.

Jardine was a two-time Los Angeles City champion as a heavyweight in high school wrestling while growing up in Canoga Park, Calif., as well as being an All-State defensive end. He went to Pierce College in Woodland Hills, Calif., before getting a scholarship to Highlands College in Las Vegas, N.M.

He started out in wrestling, then moved on to submission grappling.

He still feels his strength is on the ground, but the irony is that he keeps all of his fights standing. After outstriking Liddell, that isn't likely to change.

Before being able to make a living as a fighter — hardly an extravagant living — he was working for Madrid's Bail Bonds Business in Albuquerque as a bounty hunter. He worked as an assistant football coach at Highlands College in Las Vegas, NM, before that, and entered some area freestyle wrestling tournaments when he started training to fight seven years ago.

When he picked it up fast, that brought him to the camp of Greg Jackson in Albuquerque, which was becoming one of the leading MMA camps in the country. But even today, Jardine still drives a 1989 Ford Bronco, though Madrid did talk him into spending some money for himself to get a motorcycle.

Jardine signed his long-term deal with the UFC, one that expires in just over one year, when signing on to do the second season of the Ultimate Fighter reality show in 2005. He came in with a little bit of a name, at least within the fight world.

Most of his early fights were on small shows in the Southwest, but he had fought once for the Pancrase promotion in Japan in 2003, and once for the M-1 Promotion in Russia in 2004.


Chuck Liddell's loss will be bad for the UFC. (UFC.com)

Jardine's teammate, Diego Sanchez, made himself a star in the first season, so Jardine was approached and asked if he was willing to move up a weight class to heavyweight to appear on the second season. He agreed, although he had mixed feelings about the experience. On the show, he was more of a background character.

"I thought it was the hardest thing I've ever done," Jardine said. "My personality is that I don't need a lot of hype. I need my privacy. It was really hard and didn't suit me. But I don't regret doing it a bit."

The fact he likes to stay out of the spotlight was never more evident than the past few days. After returning home from Las Vegas, he stayed home, rested, and didn't answer the phone.

Coming off the reality show where he was eliminated by current training partner and best friend Rashad Evans (the two met on the show, but didn't became good friends until Jardine talked Evans into moving to Albuquerque), he started out at $5,000 per match with a $5,000 winning bonus.

Some guys don't have to win The Ultimate Fighter to come out of the season as a star, because they are remembered for one thing or another. Jardine didn't fit into that category. He was viewed as a heavy-hitting TUF alumni character who will stand and bang, but was considered more journeyman level until he lost a decision to Stephan Bonnar, a match many thought he won, because Bonnar was one of UFC's golden boys coming off the Bonnar vs. Forrest Griffin Match of the Year in 2005.

He was 4-2 in his six UFC fights as he followed his April 6, 2006, loss to Bonnar in Las Vegas, which really moved him up because it was a TV main event and many felt he was the victim of a bad decision. His biggest win was on Dec. 30, 2006, also in Las Vegas, knocking out Griffin in the first round.

"I think (beating) Forrest, I was a lot more excited," said Jardine, as compared to Saturday's win over Liddell. "It was a knockout finish. After this fight, I wasn't running around. I was physically exhausted."

The match was put together because they were expected to go toe-to-toe until someone — expected to be Jardine — got tagged with the big punch and went down. The funny thing is both have strong wrestling backgrounds, but neither made any attempt to use it.

"UFC liked the way I fought," he said. "They were looking for an exciting fight. But no way did they want or expect me to win."

The strategy was to stay away from Liddell's power, crowding him, or using low kicks to strike while keeping a safe distance. In his view, he saw stars a few times in the first round, which he felt was close, but also felt he wasn't going to win the round because he wasn't going to win a close round with Liddell. After the knockdown early in Round 2, he felt there was no way he could lose that round.

"Between rounds, I thought it was 1-1. I knew I wasn't getting anything close with Liddell."

When the fight ended, by no means was he sure he was getting the decision.

"I knew I turned the crowd around, and at the beginning they hated me," he said. "I was definitely worried about the decision not going my way even though I thought I had won the fight. When it goes to the decision, there's really little you can count on."

Jardine came out of the fight with cuts all over his head, to the point he can't even figure out where they all came from. But his foot was bothering him the worst, as it swelled up badly from some kicks that caught Liddell's knee, but he was relieved to find it wasn't broken.

He figures to be ready to fight in the early part of the year, and wants to throw his name out now for a shot at light heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, feeling his win over Liddell gives him the best claim for the next title shot. Jackson, due to a broken finger suffered in the Dan Henderson fight, isn't expected to defend the title until around March.

If not, he'll have no problem doing a rematch with Alexander, who walked into the UFC as a nobody and scored two straight early first-round knockouts.

"I got caught," he said. "He's the real deal. He showed it when he knocked out (Alessio) Sakara, who has good boxing skill. That fight should happen."

But for now, there's little time to enjoy the fruits of his labor. After a little rest, it's back to camp to prepare Evans, provided his Nov. 17 fight with Tito Ortiz is finalized.

Jardine made it clear that if Evans wins, it is 100 percent out of the question he would ever fight him again. A few months back, Evans and Dana White went back and forth at a press conference when Evans said he'd never fight Jardine, and White said that if the match needed to happen, it would happen.