UFC 145: Power Ranking the Main-Card Fights

UFC 145 provided the MMA world with a fairly deep card, one full of gutsy scraps, flourishing prospects and the culmination of one of the most bitter feuds in the history of the sport.

Here’s a look at the card not in chronology, but in terms of which fights delivered and which didn’t (in exciting reverse order, of course):

Mark Bocek Defeats John Alessio Via Unanimous Decision

Going into UFC 145, very few people were enthralled by this tilt on paper. Bocek was initially supposed to meet Matt Wiman, who ducked out with an injury, and Alessio was booked to replace him.

The fight itself wasn’t bad, with Bocek dominating on the ground and Alessio looking better on his feet. Still, there isn’t much of a thrill watching a fringe top-15 guy take a decision from a man who was fighting in the Score Fighting Series a month ago.

All one can hope for is that, after a six-year wait, Alessio gets at least one more chance to earn that first UFC win.

Jon Jones Defeats Rashad Evans Via Unanimous Decision

Perhaps the biggest feud in the history of the UFC—definitely the biggest since the days of Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell sniping at each other—and that’s how it ended?

There were no violent flourishes, very little showboating, even less doubt about who was taking it by the time the second round was over, and pretty much no interaction between the combatants after the fight, for better or worse.

Evans looked like he was doing all right in the first and second rounds, until the champion found range with some sharp elbows from the average man’s jab range. Jones staggered his former friend badly with a couple of them, and from there it seemed like Evans would be content just to say he survived 25 minutes with the upstart divisional kingpin.

Again, not a bad tilt to watch, but definitely not the payoff one would hope for after over a year of posturing.

Rory MacDonald Defeats Che Mills Via TKO2

Back in the day when pro wrestling was king, the guys in charge of booking matches would look to put an up-and-coming star over by putting him in the ring against a guy they could crush and look good doing so.

MMA isn’t pro wrestling, no matter how many people try to blur the lines between the two, but sometimes the matchmaking is similar.

In the proverbial Lock of the Night, Mills had no answer for MacDonald’s wrestling and even less of a hope once he was on his back. The Canadian prodigy used ruthless ground-and-pound to badly hurt the game Brit, evacuating him from the cage in under eight minutes of action.

It was entertaining if only because it showed what MacDonald is truly capable of against lesser men, and proved he needs a high top-10 guy in his next outing.

Ben Rothwell Defeats Brendan Schaub Via KO1

From Rothwell’s almost-comical spastic bouncing, his bizarre arm motions as he name was announced and his vicious game face, you knew from the start that the IFL vet had come to fight.

When all else is equal, fighters will beat athletes senseless nine out of 10 times in MMA, and that’s what happened at UFC 145.

Schaub, legendarily overconfident in his hands and chin, attempted to swarm the iron-willed, near-unfinishable Rothwell about a minute in. Rothwell, more awakened than hurt by Schaub’s shots, returned fire. Schaub buckled, and Rothwell had win No. 32 in his career.

Short, very violent, and very entertaining. Exactly what you want from middling heavyweights on a PPV card.

Michael McDonald Defeats Miguel Torres Via KO1

People wondered what McDonald was made of after his absolute warpath through the 135-pound class over the past year or so. Giving him a proven veteran and former champion in Torres was bound to answer at least some questions.

It took the 21-year-old about three minutes to show people he was for real.

Torres struggled to find his range as McDonald fired heat with bad intentions. He narrowly missed connecting a few times before finally striking with a lovely uppercut in tight and pouncing on his foe to close out with strikes on the ground.

It was an incredible piece of work by a kid who’s only getting better. It was very exciting, and was capped off with a post-fight interview that can’t help but make people like him.

Eddie Yagin Defeats Mark Hominick Via Split Decision

The obvious choice for Fight of the Night, Yagin and Hominick contested a bloody affair on the feet that matched Hominick’s crisp technique against Yagin’s heart and fury.

Yagin repeatedly tagged the Canadian with looping shots, knocking him down twice in the first two rounds and squirreling away enough points to ride out a pro-Hominick third round.

At the end of the fight, both men were battered and bloody as the decision—narrow though it was—was properly rendered in favour of Yagin.