-Hats off to Zuffa. Fantastic first effort Down Under. If Dana hadn’t promised a return to Australia before this event, he would have now. The Oz crowd provided a fantastic atmosphere for a night’s worth of fights.
-Cain Velasquez fulfilled all the hype he garnered since first stepping into the Octagon. Quick knockouts usually need to be taken with a hint of reservation, but Cain beat Nogueira to the punch from the opening bell. As a bettor, Cain’s ability to improve was the scariest attribute he had coming into the fight. Power can be developed (see: Silva, Anderson) as a fighter ages, and Cain proved that tonight. Fantastic stuff.
-Hard to see where Nogueira goes from here. A rematch with Cro Cop would be fun. Loser of Carwin/Mir might be good too. I think he’s still got a handful of fights left in him, but Minotauro’s going to have a lot of problems going forward without the iron jaw that he relied on in his PRIDE heyday.
-Wanderlei Silva looked much, much, much better at 185. He looked bulky and slow at 205 since entering the UFC, and he looked much more like the Axe Murderer of old at middleweight.
-Mike Bisping will have a real hard time moving up into the elite echelon of MMA without a reliable method of finishing.
-Wanderlei Silva’s blitzkriegs at the end of rounds brings back memories of Bald Bull’s Bull Rush.
-George Sotiropoulos put on a performance that one can only describe as beautiful. Stevenson made a huge mistake when he let George get on top in round one, but I’m not sure the fight would have gone differently anyway. George did a good job using his length to win the standup. And on the ground, he outclassed Stevenson.
-Speaking of jiu jitsu, nice to see Chris Lytle make use of the entirety of his arsenal. Oleg Taktarov would be proud.
-If the athletic commissions outlawed the left hook, Keith Jardine would be the greatest fighter alive.
-I thought Bader started to gas after round one, though he remained active up until the knockout. It’s a good step for his career, but I’m not ready to crown him at 205.
-The Cro Cop/Perosh fight went about as expected. Cro Cop looked OK, but I think there’s a couple of interesting questions to raise. 1) Why is he kicking less frequently? 2) Why does he refuse to cut off the Octagon and insist on following guys around?
[UPDATE] by Nick Thomas – UFC 110 Bonuses:
$50,000 “Submission of the Night” – Chris Lytle
$50,000 “Knockout of the Night” – Cain Velasquez
$50,000 “Fight of the Night” – George Sotiropoulos and Joe Stevenson