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.

It’s been a busy week for the UFC, with Fight Night on Wednesday now over and UFC 103 set to play out on Saturday, 19 September.

The results of the Fight Night were:

· Nate Diaz beat Melvin Guillard at 2:13 of the second round with a guillotine choke

· Gray Maynard beat Roger Huerta in a split decision using his superior wrestling skills

· Carlos Condit beat Jake Ellenberger in a split decision, despite getting knocked down three times in the first round

· Nate Quarry beat Tim Credeur in a unanimous decision, in a close contest

· Brian Stann beat Steve Cantwell in a unanimous decision

· Mike Pyle beat Chris Wilson at 2:15 of the third round with a guillotine choke

· C.B. Dolloway beat Jay Silva in a unanimous decision

· Jeremy Stephens beat Justin Buchholz at 3:23 of the first round with a cut

· Mike Pierce beat Brock Larson in a unanimous decision

· Ryan Jensen beat Steve Steinbeiss at 3:56 of the first round with a guillotine choke

Decisions and guillotine chokes. It’s really surprising that so many guillotine chokes ended fights. I mean, they’re great when you have an opportunity to use them, but how often does someone give up an opportunity to sink in an effective guillotine choke? Odd.

UFC 103 doesn’t have the kind of fights that would draw in a massive casual audience, but there are some pretty interesting match ups. What follows are a few of my picks for the main card, along with some reasoning.

In the headline event, Rich Franklin vs. Vitor Belfort, BetUS has it -150 Franklin and +120 Belfort. I think Belfort would need longer odds than that to be worth supporting in this fight, and even though it would be better if Franklin’s odds were longer, he’s the fighter to support in this bout. While many have discounted him after his losses to Anderson Silva and Dan Henderson, it’s unfair to judge him on those performances alone.

Junior dos Santos vs. Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic is Santos -135 and Cro Cop +105 at BetUS. It’s very frustrating when the lesser-known fighter is the favorite, because the well-known underdog’s odds will tend to be shortened by his fans. I think that’s happened here, and I’d avoid betting on this fight at all. I just can’t see a worthwhile risk in this bout. Cro Cop has a good enough chance of winning, despite dos Santos seeming to have him outmatched in every area. You’d think this would suggest a bet on dos Santos is worthwhile, but Cro Cop just has so much more experience. I think Cro Cop will win, but I don’t think it’s a sure enough thing to bet on him at such short underdog odds.

Josh Koscheck vs. Frank Trigg is -400 Koscheck and +300 Trigg at BetUS. I’d bet on Trigg, as his odds are clearly much longer than they should be. That isn’t to say that I think Trigg has the best chance of winning. I just think that his chances are better than the odds suggest, and that there’s opportunity for a massive upset.

That’s all I have to say for now. I’ll talk about the results of the fights next week, and maybe even a bit about TUF 10.