UFC 131: dos Santos vs. Carwin

I have to say right off the bat that I had high expectations coming into this event, with a few of the fighters I really like being featured on the main card I had believed that nothing short of fireworks would've come of this event. While that didn't quite happen I still enjoyed the event somewhat.

In the first fight of the night Donald Cerrone welcomed Vagner Rocha in his UFC debut. Cerrone has been one of my favorite fighters in the lightweight division for years, having been a big fan during his run in the WEC and making a definite impression during his first year in the UFC. Vagner, having heard nothing about, was someone I was interested in seeing fight because debuts can often make a bigger splash then expected (i.e. Jardin/Alexander). What happened though was a showcase of the victor's skills in a heavily one-sided fight, that unfortunately went to a decision.

Next up was Dave Herman against Jon Olav Einemo, both fighters making their UFC debuts. This is the fight I would've expected of the last two: these guys beat the living crap out of each other. If it weren't for the fact their conditioning had started to falter towards the end this would be one of my favorite fights of the year, but I still had a lot of respect for both men after this in what would later be named Fight of the Night.

Ever since his fight with Anderson Silva, Demian Maia has really tried to become a more well-rounded fighter and has done a pretty good job of doing it. However, he's become something of a boring fighter who can't seem to finish his fights. His opponent, on the hand, Mark Munoz has been. A powerful wrestler who has some really nasty power in his hands who has destroyed some really good middleweights. These two fought real hard against one another in an extremely close fight but I believe the right person ended up winning, unfortunately for me it was a decision.

For the life of me, I can't understand what it is about Kenny Florian but he just bugs the crap out of me. I don't deny he's a good fighter but he just irks me in a way only a few fighters can. Biased as it is this made me root for Diego Nunes all that much more. Diego Nunes has been a really exciting featherweight, having made a good name for himself in the WEC. This fight was not only Florian's debut at featherweight but it was also for number one contender-ship for Jose Aldo's title. I had a lot of fun watching this fight especially the first round before one of the fighter's conditioning starts to fail. Decent fight but round one is the best as for the reason stated before.

This is the biggest disappointment, personally, for me on the card (maybe the whole year). When it was announced that Brock Lesnar would have to pull out of his bout with Junior Dos Santos due to diverticulitis I was kinda upset having seen the build-up over the last season of the Ultimate Fighter. Then I was given the treat of Shane Carwin replacing Lesnar, a man who came close to defeating Lesnar himself. As these two are both knockout artists I called this being an absolute war, being a classic battle of speed vs. power ending somewhere in the early parts of round one or at the latest two. Reality had something else in mind however, and that was a one-sided three round beating, and I do mean beating. This was definitely the showing for number one contender-ship that the victor needed to establish himself for Velasquez's title. So strong a case that the fall bout is now my most anticipated fight of the year.

All in all, not a bad card but certainly not my favorite. Has a few knockouts and submissions along with some battles but I just can't bring myself to give it a great recommendation.

The main thing I liked about this fight card is seeing Shane Carwin make his return win or lose. Overall the main card was decent. The real co-main event should've been Sam Stout vs Yves Edwards which was on the prelims. They've more notereity and this was the best fight on the card from top to bottom in my opinon.