UFC is having a very busy month – UFC 111 came less than a week after the inaugural ‘UFC on Versus’ event, and only a few days before Fight Night 21 and the debut of 11th season of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’.  Sandwiched between the two smaller events, 111 held it’s own in the fight line-up, with welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre defending his belt against Dan Hardy, and heavyweights Frank Mir and Shane Carwin meeting for the interim title.   Welterweights Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves were supposed to have a rematch in the third featured bout, however a pre-fight CAT scan revealed an abnormality in Thiago’s brain, which prevented him from being licensed for the fight and resulted in Ben Saunders stepping in to face Fitch.  Saunders’ originally scheduled opponent Jake Ellenberger was scratched for the card (receiving both ‘show’ and ‘win’ money for his troubles).  Here’s how it all went down:

Preliminary Card (Spike TV)

Ricardo Almeida vs. Matt Brown (170 lbs)

Round 1: Brown throws a high kick and gets taken down.  He gets up but Almeida plants him back down again.  Brown uses the cage to escape to his feet.  They clinch and it’s a stalemate.  Referee breaks up the clinch but Almeida is not having any part of Brown’s stand up and goes right back to clinching against the cage looking for takedowns.  Very little action, with Almeida landing a couple of good elbows.  Almeida edges out a very boring round to the loud boo’s of the crowd.  Round 10-9 Almeida

Round 2: Brown again starts the round with a kick, leading to an instant takedown.  Brown up and back down.  Brown up again and back to clinch against the fence.  A repeat of the first round.  Almeida lands an elbow combination that cuts Brown, then takes him down and quickly passes his guard.  Brown rolls; Almeida locks in a body triangle and transitions to Matt’s back, locks in a rear naked choke and Brown is forced to tap.

Aftermath: Ricardo Almeida’s welterweight debut was a successful one, despite boring the fans out of their minds for the first and much of the second round.   He needs to be matched up with another elite grappler – preferably Matt Serra or Matt Hughes.

The usually exciting Matt Brown has his game shut out by a much superior grappler; his clinching and takedown defense clearly need some work.  In the meanwhile, a fight with Brian Foster should make for some fireworks.

Fight Grade: 2.5/5

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UFC’s first event televised on the Versus network took place in Broomfield, Colorado – the home state of the first UFC event held back in 1993.  Zuffa – UFC’s parent company – has been frequently using the Versus network to broadcast WEC events.  For a period of time, a dispute between DirecTV and Comcast (the owners of Versus) kept the network off the screens of DirecTV subscribers.  The dispute was resolved just in time for this event, allowing the first UFC on Versus to be broadcast to a wider audience.

Besides the network change, the other notable theme of this event was a reunion of the previous class of UFC’s heavyweights:  Gabriel Gonzaga, Cheik Kongo, and the presently light-heavyweight Brandon Vera.  All three fighters began their UFC careers within a year of each other, and all have received a varying degree of hype early in their careers, but consistently underachieved.  All three had a pivotal matchup lined up for them on this card.

Alessio Sakara vs. James Irvin (185 lbs)

Round 1: Sakara is the aggressor early on, interchanging punch combinations with leg kicks.  Irvin is tentative, defending and firing off an occasional leg kick.  Sakara trips and falls while throwing a leg kick but gets up before Irvin has a chance to capitalize.  Sakara lands a left hook and Irvin collapses, clutching his eye.  Referee Josh Rosenthal pulls Sakara off before any more damage is done.  Irvin complains about an eye poke but replay shows it was a clean punch that landed to the eye.  After some hesitation, Rosenthal declares the bout a TKO victory for Sakara – the right call.

Aftermath: Alessio Sakara earns three consecutive wins for the first time in his UFC career.  He should next take on the winner of the upcoming bout between Patrick Cote and Alan Belcher, or Vitor Belfort if he returns to action soon.

James Irvin looked completely flat in his first fight after a long layoff.  Whether the cause was ring rust, a difficult cut for his first fight at 185 lbs, being gun-shy after his destruction at the hands of Anderson Silva, or a combination of all these factors, Irvin’s UFC career may be in jeopardy.  Post-fight, the UFC President Dana White mentioned that if Irvin gets another chance, it will not be in the middleweight division.

Fight Grade: 2/5

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WEC 47 ‘Bowles vs. Cruz’ was the organization’s debut in Columbus, Ohio, and featured several important matchups in the bantamweight division: Champion Brian Bowles was set to defend his title against Dominick Cruz, former champion Miguel Torres took on Joseph Benavidez in a #1 contender bout, and a rising prospect Scott Jorgensen looked to break into the title picture.  As usual, the card was rounded out by a smattering of lightweight and featherweight bouts.

Bart Palaszewski vs. Karen Darabedyan (155 lbs)

Round 1: The fighters circle each other tentatively.  Karen lands the first significant punch.  Bart answers with leg kicks.  Karen advances with a flurry, backing Bart into the cage, then goes for a takedown.  Palaszewski grabs on to a guillotine but gets slammed as Darabedyan breaks free and lands elbows to the head.  Bart tries for an omoplata and uses it to regain guard.  Bart attempts and armbar and a triangle but Karen evades danger and finds openings for elbows and punches.  Karen stands over Bart and eats an upkick then dives back into Palaszewski’s guard.  Palaszewski keeps looking for an armbar and finally secures one, straightening out Karen’s arm.  Darabedyan tries to roll out of it but he is trapped and forced to tap out.

Fight Grade: 4/5

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