It was the kind of night that just made fighters want to tap out, with more than half the bouts at UFC 62: “Liddell vs. Sobral” ending in submission.

And for all the hype and brouhaha leading up to the rematches between Chuck and Babalu, and Griffin versus Bonnar, the fights just didn’t seem to live up to expectations.

Babalu – by all accounts – was a changed man, reborn after his embarrassing loss to Chuck four years ago. But again, he got caught in the first round.

It’s more a testament to how good “The Iceman” still is. Yep, the old man still has it.

Babalu entered the Octagon with the apparent strategy to get close to Chuck, which turned out to be a big mistake.

Here’s a post-fight snip from Chuck in today’s Washington Post:

“I thought it would take a little longer for him to come after me. I hurt him with a jab early and he didn’t really like that so he came after me with a big overhand. He must have thought he hurt me and then I hit him with that right.”

(To be honest, the only time Babalu looked good and comfortable was when he tried wrestling Big John McCarthy, thinking he was Chuck.)

Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar were expected to catch lightning in a bottle twice, and turn in gutsy blood soaked performances like in the first match up.

Impossible.

But, it didn’t even come close to the epic war that put both of them – and possibly the UFC – on the proverbial map. For the most part, Griffin controlled much of the fight by putting on a boxing clinic.

Here are the rest of the results from the action last night:

-Forrest Griffin defeated Stephan Bonnar via unanimous decision
-Nick Diaz defeated Josh Neer via armbar in round 3
-Cheick Kongo defeated Christian Wellisch via TKO in round 1
-Hermes Franca defeated Jamie Varner via armbar in round 3
-Eric Schafer defeated Rob MacDonald via arm triangle in round 1
-Wilson Gouveia defeated Wes Combs via rear naked choke in round 1
-David Heath defeated Cory Walmsley via rear naked choke in round 1
-Yushin Okami defeated Alan Belcher via unanimous decision

Besides the re-emergence and dominant performance put on by Nick Diaz, the other fights just fell flat. Not because they were bad or controversial … but because we have all come to expect nothing best show every time we tune in to a UFC event.

Put simply, UFC 62: “Liddell vs. Sobral” is just not an event that people are going to remember a few months down the road.