Written by Scott Swerbinsky

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The 4^th of July fireworks display came early for mixed martial arts fans everywhere. UFC 132 went down last night and lived up to the hype. Going into the evening, I expected this card to be one of the best in 2011 and as of now, that looks spot on.

It’s not very often that the main event title fight earns the “Fight of the Night” honors, but that’s exactly what happened in the Dominick Cruz Urijah Faber matchup.

 

Cruz and Faber put on a show in a fight that was pretty damn hard to score. All three judges scored the fight for Cruz who retained his 135 pound title. The scores were 50-45, 49-48, and 48-47. I could possibly see Cruz getting the nod in three of the rounds, but there is no way he won all five rounds. I scored the fight 48 to 47 in favor of Urijah Faber.

 

This fight was fun to watch, twenty five minutes of nonstop action. We saw solid striking, good takedowns, and unbelievable cardio. I thought Faber scored the harder and more damaging strikes and looked to be the fresher fighter halfway thru. Cruz has a very akward style, jumping around and staying on his toes. The fact that Cruz is very hard to hit and figure must have been the difference on the scorecards.

What made this fight so hard to score was the fact that neither fighter was truly in any danger at any point in the fight. Both guys are so quick and light on their feet and hard to get a hold of. On paper going in it was a tossup fight and I feel it was just as close when it was over and done with. It’s one to one between Cruz and Faber, I think we need to see a third installment.

The Chris Leban Wanderlei Silva fight was supposed to be the one that earned fight of the night and produce the fireworks. It did, for the full twenty nine seconds that is lasted. Chris Leban destroyed Silva and probably sent him out of the UFC and hopefully into retirement.

Silva came out swinging, landed a shot and thought he hurt Leban. The shot didn’t hurt Leban and Silva then got drilled with numerous shots and ended up face down and out cold. He was so out of it, after a minute or so, he started to wrestle with the ref as he thought it was Leban.

Wanderlei Silva has fought the best of the best and been thru some of the most violent fights in MMA history. He has taken a ton of punishment over the years and needs to get out while he can, he has nothing else to prove.

Tito Ortiz had something to prove. “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” showed he isn’t finished yet.  He got the submission victory in the first round over Ryan Bader. It took just two minutes to dispose of Bader.

Ortiz landed a short glancing punch that rocked Bader and knocked him down. Ortiz pounced on him looking to ground and pound, Bader gave up his neck and Ortiz made him tap out. Tito looked to be in great shape and can keep his job as a UFC fighter for a little while longer.

Carlos Condit handed Dong Hyun Kim his first loss with a very impressive performance. Condit landed a beautiful flying knee that led to a TKO stoppage in the first round. With another win or two, Condit might find himself in line for a title shot at 170 pounds.

Official Results:

Dominick Cruz def. Urijah Faber via unanimous decision (50-45, 49-46, 48-47) to retain UFC bantamweight title

Chris Leben def. Wanderlei Silva via knockout (punches) - Round 1, 0:27

Dennis Siver def. Matt Wiman via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Tito Ortiz def. Ryan Bader via submission (guillotine choke) - Round 1, 1:56

Carlos Condit def. Dong Hyun Kim via TKO (strikes) - Round 1, 2:58

Melvin Guillard def. Shane Roller via knockout (strikes) - Round 1, 2:12

Rafael Dos Anjos def. George Sotiropolous via knockout (punch) - Round 1, 0:59

Brian Bowles def. Takeya Mizugaki via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)

Aaron Simpson def. Brad Tavares via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Anthony Njokuani def. Andre Winner via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 30-26)

Jeff Hougland def. Donny Walker via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)

What a great card we got to witness last night. Every fight was action packed and highly entertaining. On a day that boxing wanted to steal the spotlight, the UFC showed why mixed martial arts is clearly the best sport in the world. And it’s not even close.