Luckily, the injury rate for this event subsided slightly and the card stabilized long enough for an official announcement of the fights. For an event that seemed to fulfill End of Days prophecies, it was a pretty exciting night, with only 3 decisions in 10 fights.

First of all, UFC 108 was bad news for the Lauzons, as both Dan and Joe lost their fights. Dan Lauzon was caught in a bizarre triangle and kimura combo by Cole Miller. Joe Lauzon was simply outmatched in all 3 rounds of his fight against Sam Stout, who has come out looking a much better prospect after his disappointing beginnings in the UFC.

Also on this card was Junior dos Santos vs. Gilbert Yvel. Originally, this was scheduled to be a fight between dos Santos and Gabriel Gonzaga, which was a very exciting fight for anyone interested in Dos Santos’ rise through the heavyweight division. Gonzaga got sick, however, and Yvel stepped up to replace him. Gilbert Yvel is known for three things – fouls, KO victories, and absolutely no ground game. What a surprise, then, when Junior dos Santos chose to stand with Yvel, knocking him down and then finishing him off at 2:07 of the first round. It’s not all that impressive given Yvel’s record in the biggest promotions, but it demonstrates that dos Santos has a good sense of himself and he knows when he completely outclasses an opponent.

I was sad to see Dustin Hazelett lose to Paul Daley so quickly, but he brought it on himself. Hazelett has only ever managed to finish his UFC fights by submission, yet he did not attempt to take Paul Daley down at all. One wonders if he had been training as if he was still going to fight Karo Parisyan. Regardless, it’s a bit of a shame, as that beard of his is spectacular, and it needs merchandising opportunities.

Finally, let’s look at the main event. Rashad Evans edged out a decision against Thiago Silva, and he was in big trouble near the end of the fight. It was the kind of performance that makes you think he’ll probably get another challenge for the title sometime, but he’s unlikely to win it unless he gets to take it from Forrest again. Beating Thiago Silva is impressive, it just needed to be more dominant to really prove that Evans could become a dominant champion in the future. We’ll see how Rashad does against Rampage, I suppose.

Next week we get an Ultimate Fight Night to tide us over until UFC 109 and Strikeforce: Miami. It’s a pretty busy month for MMA if you think about it, but I imagine a lot of it will pass people by due to New Year headaches.

While the preliminary card was apparently filled with decisions, the main card of UFC 103 saw almost every fight ending in a KO or TKO. The only fight that didn’t was due to verbal submission as the result of strikes – which you may as well count as a TKO victory.

The results for the event were:

• Tyson Griffin knocked out Hermes Franca at 3:26 of the second round
• Josh Koscheck demolished Frank Trigg with punches at 1:26 of the first round
• Paul Daley beat Martin Kampmann via TKO at 2:31 of the first round
• Junior dos Santos caused Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic to verbally submit at 2:00 of the third round
• Vitor Belfort put himself on the path to an early title shot by knocking out Rich Franklin at 3:02 of the first round

I am incredibly surprised by the results of three of these fights. The first is that Josh Koscheck had so little trouble beating Frank Trigg. I thought Trigg was better than that, but he is clearly so far past his prime that his talk of a title run was more than ridiculous.

Second is that Cro Cop had to verbally submit, though he had certainly taken more than enough punishment by that point that it’s understandable. Some think it may have been a career ending loss, but it’s always a bad idea to jump to such conclusions after a single bad beating.

Finally, I never thought Vitor Belfort could possibly defeat Rich Franklin so soundly. There’s talk that he’ll be next to fight for the title, and I doubt anyone could say that he doesn’t deserve it. Franklin’s reputation is back to where it was after his loss to Dan Henderson, which seems somewhat unfair given his recent win over Wanderlei Silva. The guy can fight – he’s just unlikely to get another shot at the title unless he becomes an entirely different fighter.

Sadly, there’s a long wait until the next UFC event, but it’s going to be Shogun vs. Machida, so I’m already excited. This will be the first test of Machida as a light heavyweight champion. Will he retain his undefeated record, or will a revitalized Shogun work out the karate master’s bizarre defensive style? I can’t wait for this one, but before that there is the next ShoMMA event on 25 September and WEC 43 on 10 October, which I will obviously make comment on.