By Mark Gessner

UFC 126: Silva vs Belfort: Anderson Silva  
Live on Pay-Per-View from the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, NV

1. Miguel Torres vs Antonio Banuelos (Bantamweight Division)

Round One: 10-9 Torres. Torres entered the fight with a fourteen inch reach advantage. Torres took advantage of his huge reach advantage and connected with numerous solid jabs throughout the round. While an un-exciting round, Torres did more than enough to win the round. 

Round Two: 10-9 Torres. After establishing range in the first round, Torres began throwing nice striking combos that were very jab heavy. Banuelos could not get in close enough to connect with any of his punches and was eating jabs whenever he attempted to take the fight to the inside.

Round Three: 10-9 Torres. A carbon copy of the opening two rounds. Torres connected with jab after jab. With thirty seconds left in the fight, Banuelos began throwing wild striking combinations, about two-thirds of his strikes connecting, but it was not enough to knockout Torres prior to the horn sounding. 30-27 Torres on my scorecard.

Decision: Miguel Torres defeats Antonio Banuelos via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Gessner's Glance:Why Banuelos waited until the last 30 seconds to start throwing a flurry of strikes is beyond me. Going into the third round, Banuelos' only chance for beating Torres was with a knockout. According to Compustrike, Banuelos landed only ten of one hundred and twelve punches in the fight, and only seventeen total strikes landed. Torres landed eighty-seven strikes. While doing more than enough to win, Torres did not leave a lasting first impression with UFC fans that you would expect from a former WEC Bantamweight Champion.

2. Carlos Eduardo Rocha vs Jake Ellenberger (Welterweight Division)

Round One: Rocha 10-9. Rocha took the fight to the ground early and was in a dominant position for the majority of the round. In the closing minute of the round, Rocha locked in a good armbar but was unable to cinch it in, and secure the submission victory.

Round Two: 10-9 Ellenberger. Rocha shot in for a takedown twice early in the the round. Ellenberger displayed great sprawl defense by stuffing the takedowns and connecting with a flurry of punches before backing away so he wouldn't leave himself open for a submission. Back-and-forth striking for the remainder of the round, which I feel Ellenberger had the slight edge in.

Round Three: Ellenberger 10-9. A stand-up striking battle for the full five minutes. Ellenberger seemed to have landed more combinations and was much more effective in his striking than Rocha. While Ellenberger has the slight edge in striking in the second, he was clearly the aggressor and more successful in the third. I think the first round was Rocha's, the third round was Ellenberger's, and while giving Ellenberger the edge on my scorecard in the second round, it was a pick 'em round. 29-28 Ellenberger in my opinion though.

Decision: Jake Ellenberger defeats Carlos Eduardo Rocha via split decision (29-28, 29-28, 27-30)  

Gessner's Glance: How the hell does anyone score that fight 30-27 for Rocha?! 29-28 would be understandable, but he in no way, shape, or form won every round. How do you become a Nevada state licensed mixed martial arts judge? I'll happily sign up for a position where you get paid to watch fights and are not held accountable for asinine scorecards.

With that said, Ellenberger won this fight with the two stuffed takedown attempts in the beginning of the second round. Due to being fearful of getting knocked out or having the referee stop the fight while in the sprawl, Rocha stopped trying to take the fight to the ground. Ellenberger is a much better fighter on his feet than Rocha and Rocha's best chance was to take the fight to the ground where he had the advantage, and win via submission. 

3. Ryan Bader vs Jon Jones (Light Heavyweight Division)

Round One: 10-9 Jones. Jones dominated the round on the ground. Bader showed good submission defense by not tapping to a D'arce choke from the north/south position that Jones had locked in for about forty-five seconds. He also displayed good ground defense by escaping Jones' first ground onslaught but at no point did Bader do any damage to Jones. Could be scored 10-8 for Jones but I don't think he inflicted enough damage to warrant that, regardless of him dominating the entire five minutes.

Round Two: A stand up exchange to open the round. Jones was getting the better of Bader with a lot of emphasis on starting and ending his combinations with leg kicks. Jones attempted what looked like a superman elbow but Bader was able to counter with an overhand right, his first offense of the fight. Bader caught a kick and pulled guard.

Gessner's Glance: Really strange to see a wrestler pull guard. All wrestlers hate being on their back so a strange decision by Bader to say the least.

Jones went back to attempting to end the fight with a D'arce choke but after being unable to cinch it in, opted to switch to a guillotine choke which Bader tapped out to after five seconds of being in the choke.

Jon Jones defeats Ryan Bader via submission due to a guillotine choke at 4:20 of the second round

Gessner's Glance: A dominant performance by Jon "Bones" Jones. While I felt that Jones the edge in stand-up based on the phenomenal arsenal that he has at his disposal, I felt Bader had the better ground game. This was not the case however. A JUCO wrestler out-wrestled and out-classed a NCAA D-I All American wrestler. Impressive, impressive win by Jones.

In the post fight interview with Joe Rogan, Rogan informed Jones that the number one contender for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship has been pulled from his title fight at UFC 128 due to a blown out knee. Jones was given the opportunity to fill-in and fight for the championship, which an emotional Jones accepted. Champion, Shogun Rua entered the cage and said that he is ready for anything.

Gessner's Glance: DAMN! While Evans was next in line for the title shot based on his win over Rampage and it would have been a good title fight, Jones is a much exciting challenger and will be a much better title fight. I was planning on going to UFC 128 in Newark, NJ prior to this announcement, but now I cannot wait. 

4. Forrest Griffin vs Rich Franklin (Light Heavyweight Division)

Round One: 10-9 Griffin. Griffin caught an early leg kick by Franklin and took him to the ground. From there, it was a four minute ground and pound display by Griffin. Franklin defended well and did not get rocked at any point but was still dominated.

Round Two: 10-9 Griffin. Griffin is clearly on the offensive and Franklin is depending on counter striking which has proven unsuccessful thus far. Griffin appear to have rocked Franklin momentarily with an inside left hook but Franklin was able to shake it after a few seconds. Griffin scored the only takedown of the round and had the edge in striking meaning that KO or submission in the third was Franklin's only hope for winning the fight on my card.

Round Three: 10-9 Franklin. Griffin scored a few takedowns throughout the round and again had the edge in striking in the stand up. 

Decision: Forrest Griffin defeats Rich Franklin via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) 

Gessner's Glance: While not an extremely entertaining fight, this was still a good fight and showed that he was in control for the vast majority of his return fight. He beat Tito Ortiz in his last fight via split decision, there was no question as to whether or not he won tonight. I really am not sure what round the judges felt Franklin won, but it's three vs one opinions and we all know, MMA judges don't ever screw up scoring fights. 

Anderson Silva vs Vitor Belfort for the UFC Middleweight Championship 

Round One: After circling one another in the opening minute of the first round, Vitor Belfort threw and connected with the first strike of the fight at 1:28, a leg kick that did not appear to do any damage at all to Silva. Belfort proceeded to throw a few more leg kicks but wasn't really inflicting any damage.

Gessner's Glance: Has Silva forgotten that you need to win the first three rounds before you can just move around the octagon, avoiding threatening strikes and not throwing any yourself?

With about two minutes left in the opening round, Belfort connected with with a left hook. Silva threw a kick that Belfort blocked and took down Silva in the process. Silva immediately got back to his feet. Out of no where, Silva threw a left front kick to the head of Belfort, and caught him squarely on the jaw and dropped him. Belfort is out. Silva connected with two right hands to a fallen Belfort before referee Mario Yamasaki stepped in and ended the fight.

Anderson Silva defeats Vitor Belfort via knockout at 3:25 of the first round to retain the UFC Middleweight Championship

Gessner's Glance: Great knockout victory by Silva. Love him or hate him, he is either the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world or second behind Georges St. Pierre depending on who you ask. 

Overall Show Thoughts: A decent show overall but did not come anywhere close to the hype it got prior to tonight's show. Torres dominated Banuelos. Ellenberger dominated the final two rounds of his fight with Rocha. Jones dominated Bader. Griffin dominated Franklin. And, Anderson Silva dominated Belfort with one kick.

Jon Jones showed that he is a forced to be reckoned with in the Light Heavyweight Division. While prior to tonight I felt he was two wins away from getting a title shot, he showed the he is ready to contend for the championship right now. It will be interested to see how he handles having only a month and a half to train for Shogun as opposed to the typical four to six months most fighters have between fights. Title fights don't come around very often, so there is no way he could have and/or should have declined.

While Forrest Griffin was able to shake off the rust following his injury and get a good win tonight, Rich Franklin appears to be on the down swing of his career. In his last five fights, he is 2-3. One of his two wins was a counter punch that hit Liddell on the jaw perfectly and knocked him out. Prior to the KO though, the forty year old at the time Liddell was dominating Franklin. 

If you ordered this fight simply for Anderson Silva vs Vitor Belfort, you are A) probably upset about spending $45 dollars for forty-five seconds of action and B) your last name is most likely Silva or Belfort. It was without a doubt, one of the more impressive knockouts that I have seen, but was not worth the price of the pay-per-view when you will be seeing the replays of it in video packages for years to come.

So what's next for Anderson Silva? Depending how long it takes for Sonnen to clear up his legal issues, he is probably the next fight for Silva since he is the only fighter in the middleweight division who has proven to be a problem for him. With GSP facing Shields in May, to complete clearing out the entire Welterweight Division of any challengers for him, I think Silva fights one more time prior to the GSP vs Silva showdown fight that could either close out 2011 or kickoff 2012. 

Thank you very much for clicking the link that brought you to my coverage of UFC 126:Silva vs Belfort. If you have any thoughts, questions, comments, or critiques, feel free to email me at kliq4life28@gmail.com or tweet me at Twitter.com/MarkGessner.  

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