UFC126 was held on Feb. 5th, 2011 and had the potential to be an excellent series of fights. The main event was a highly anticipated middleweight fight that featured Anderson Silva, who holds the record for most title defences in UFC history with nine. In the lead up to the fight, the fighter’s bad blood and heated stare down at the weigh-ins helped promote the fight. Some say Silva is the best pound for pound fighter in the world, I say he is at the top for sure, but George St. Pierre and Jose Aldo are also worthy of that title. Anyway, Anderson was set to fight Vitor Belfort, who is known as the "phenom" and for having the fastest hands in UFC history. On paper the fight was close but the odds were in favour of the champion. I honestly thought that Belfort was going to win because he throws punches in bunches and even someone as elusive as Silva cannot avoid nine or ten punches in a row from one of the fastest punchers in the sport. I also thought that if Belfort was going to lose it was going to be because Anderson would catch him coming in, but the fight ended very surprisingly. History was made in the finish of this fight. I was astonished by it because Silva knocked Belfort out in the first round with a front kick. Nobody has ever knocked another fighter out in any combat sport with a front kick. I was sceptical of Anderson Silva because of his prior disappointing performances against Chael Sonnen, Demian Maia, and Thales Leites. He won those fights, but he was cocky, got dominated, and did not look like the Anderson Silva that the fans had become used to seeing. After this fight, the old Silva is back and in a big way. This means that any card Silva is on will make promotion of the event very easy because he is such an unpredictable and exciting fighter to watch. Whoever he fights next is in for a huge challenge.
As for the rest of the card, I was disappointed in the performance of Miguel Angel Torres, who is known for being a very exciting fighter, who fans love to watch. He won the fight but it was boring and very unlike him. The new 135lbs division, along with the 145lbs division, that just recently was added to the UFC from the WEC was represented very poorly by this fight. These weight divisions are usually the most exciting to watch and bring more fans to the UFC, further expanding their fan base.
A lot of the fights were not very exciting to the casual fan, but surprisingly they were not even that exciting to me and as a devoted and fairly knowledgeable fan of the sport, I too was disappointed with a few of the fights. In the end the event was successful because of strong promotion by the fighters.
Finally, I think the fight that got the most attention in the end, was the fight between Ryan Bader and Jon Jones (see above) in the light heavyweight division. Two of the best rising stars in all of MMA fought to boost themselves into the top 5 in the division. The winner, Jon Jones, who is one of the most exciting and unorthodox fighters in the sport who also makes promotion very easy because of his fighting style, was given a title shot against Mauricio Rua at UFC 128 because the number one contender Rashad Evans is out with a knee injury. The news was delivered to Jones right after his impressive win over Bader. I believe this young fighter is improving rapidly and has the ability to become the champion one day. Is this too soon? I believe that Jones can pull off the upset over shogun, but we are talking about one of the best and most experienced fighters in the world, a man who destroyed former champions Lyoto Machida and Chuck Liddell. You can be sure of one thing, that Jones will be prepared after a great training camp with Greg Jackson and he will put up a great fight and maybe pull of the upset and become champion at such a young age. My pick: Jones over Rua in a 4th round TKO. Thanks for reading and that is my review on UFC 126. The promotion by the fighters and by the UFC was extremely successful because the event sold out and some very exciting things happened during the event as well. 2011 looks very promising for the UFC and we should have some very exciting and legendary fights coming up in the near future. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyNzIw4lEwk First ever knockout by a Front Kick
