UFC 100 from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 11, has come to a close.
The promotion's historic event went into Saturday night without a subtitle, but after witnessing the brutality of Dan Henderson and Brock Lesnar, the event could have been aptly titled "No Remorse."
Heading into the main event rematch with UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar, Interim title holder Frank Mir had become something of an American Michael Bisping -- at times so cocky and arrogant that it was starting to sound more like defensive posturing and less like genuine confidence.
Whatever it was, it didn't do much good, as the pasty-face goliath ran roughshod over the Las Vegas-based jiu-jitsu black belt, improving what he did right in their first encounter at UFC 81 and eliminating the old mistakes that saw him tap in their first go-round.
Mir gave the crowd a few butterflies with a perfectly-timed jumping knee, but it was far little, far too late against the wrestling of the former NCAA heavyweight champion. Lesnar was neither flashy nor flagrant, taking Mir down and controlling his limbs to create space and pound at will.
In fact by the end of the first round, Mir's face started to looked like Cinderella's coach just after turning into a pumpkin.
Following the gruesome second round stoppage, Lesnar took over in the trash-talking department, flipping off the unappreciative crowd and jawing a battered Mir. While it certainly resembled his glory days in the WWE, a small part of me enjoyed the heat Lesnar brought on himself as he elevated his status to most despised champion in UFC history.
Kind of makes you long for the days of ol' Tim-eh, eh?
I'll bet Michael Bisping longs for the days of TUF, so he could retract some of that silliness he was spewing about knocking out the immortal Dan Henderson. There was a lot of talk about Hendo's fading star coming into his fight with "The Count," but his brutal knockout over the British posterboy was probably the stiffest stoppage since Nate Quarry went rigid at UFC 56.
Hendo never gave the TUF 3 champ an opportunity to get things going. The Greco-Roman ravager stalked Bisping and lured him into the danger zone and used what may be the knockout of the century to air-mail the frozen Pondsman back to his homeland.
And Henderson seemed to enjoy the opportunity to silence him. He remarked in his post fight interview that a second shot to the downed Brit was a little lesson in humility.
Remind me not to say anything negative about "Hollywood" in future columns.
One person I can't say anything negative about is Georges St. Pierre. In a fight that I had pegged him to lose, "Rush" laughed off the feared offense of Thiago Alves with a brilliant gameplan of staying outside the pocket and using his incomparable wrestling to stymie the hulking Brazilian.
Credit to Alves, who despite a difficult weight cut was as fresh and as powerful in round five as he was in round one. Although "Pitbull" was always a threat on his feet, he quickly learned that this division is owned by St. Pierre -- everyone else is just a tenant.
Anyone complaining the win was boring needs to go back to MMA 101. In spite of a third round groin injury, the Canadian crusader developed a gameplan and executed that gameplan for five rounds without fail, using both aggression and dominance. The winner of Martin Kampmann vs. Mike Swick is now next in line for the title.
Pity them.
Speaking of pity, Alan Belcher didn't seem to have any for the sexiness of Yoshihiro Akiyama. Hitting Grandmaster Sexy in the junk is like kicking "The Flash" in the shins. Don't mess with a guy's livelihood.
Maybe Akiyama can use that as an excuse for running out of gas by the second round. Despite his split-decision win, it's infuriating as a fan to watch two guys go limp so early in a fight, effectively robbing the fans of any technique and turning it into a sloppy brawl that boils down to which winded zombie lands first.
One thing that wasn't first was the bout between Jon Fitch and Paulo Thiago. In fact it wasn't second, third or fourth, either.
That's because the son-of-a-Fitch was relegated to a dark match, outpointing his Brazilian foe after surviving a submission scare early in round one. Fitch now has his revenge for the fallen Josh Koscheck and the UFC (once again) has its revenge on Fitch's right to choose.
Overall UFC 100 delivered, and while there were no televised submissions, for the most part there was a little something for everyone. Even the bloodthirsty drunks who chant USA! USA! can now place an 8x10 of Dan Henderson on their desk at work.
If you missed any of the action, be sure to check out our complete UFC 100 results and blow-by-blow coverage by clicking here .
Now that’s enough out of me for one night, it’s time to hear your thoughts. What did you think?