Alan Belcher vs. Kalib Starnes

I think everyone hates to see a fight end because of a cut, but in this case I don’t think that cheapens the win for Belcher. Alan opened a nasty gash over Kalib’s eye in the first round and he proceeded to keep the pressure on by staying aggressive. Belcher landed some nasty elbows to keep Starnes’s cut wide open. While I think it would have been a closer match had Starnes been able to see, I was quite impressed with Belcher’s performance, and I definitely underestimated him in this fight. Even though the UFC middleweight division has less top talent than the other weight classes, I can’t complain much about the quality of the fights.

Brandon Vera vs. Tim Sylvia

This fight held no surprises. I would have expected Tim to try to throw a bit more strikes, but otherwise this was simply a case of Tim using his size and strength to dominate a smaller opponent. It looked a lot like Sylvia vs Assuerio Silva (minus Tim crapping his pants). Get used to this UFC fans. Aside from Big Nog, I can’t think of anyone currently in the UFC who has the size and/or the skills to beat Sylvia at this game. At this point I only see maybe 5 guys who have a legitimate chance against Sylvia: Minotauro, Fedor, Randy, Barnett and Mark Hunt. What do the last 4 fighters have in common? They aren’t fighting in the UFC. Ladies and Gentlemen - welcome to the UFC Middleweight division part 2!

(Tangent - now that it’s official that M1 signed Fedor Emilianenko, and they have more fighter announcements coming, they have a wide open opportunity to put together a monster heavyweight division and give the UFC a run for their money right off the bat. Barnett and Hunt are out there still. Mike Whitehead has left the IFL and would be a nice up-and-comer to add. Jeff Monson, Mark Coleman, and Pedro Rizzo all still have some fights in them. And don’t forget that Arlovski only has one fight remaining on his UFC contract. I think it would be great for the sport if M1 took the lead here and put together a solid HW division.)

Anderson Silva vs. Rich Franklin

Another fight with no big surprises. Congrats to Rich for making it to the second round before Anderson smashed his nose in. I’m just glad none of the pins from the last surgery started poking out. I knew this was going to be another demolition as soon as I heard that Rich was planning on standing and trading with Silva. That’s like saying "I’m going to pick up this rattlesnake by the face". Not a wise move. After this fight, the middleweight division of the UFC is officially FUBAR. Silva is virtually unbeatable, but that doesn’t matter since there’s no real competition for him in the UFC. Hopefully David Terrell destroys Ed Herman at UFC 78, because Okami’s contract is up and Dan Henderson seems like he’s already getting tired of dealing with Dana White and the rest of the UFC management. This division keeps getting thinner by the day…