The De Souza Special, Vol. I: The Fallout From UFC 115

After watching UFC 115, I must say that I have never been in as large a state of surprise as I was when the event ended.

I mean, really... that card was pretty sweet.

It was one of the first cards I've seen in months that I personally feel exceeded some people's expectations and definitely delivered on a lot of the hyped-up fights.

Out of the event itself, I think we learned a lot more than just what we learned from Rich "Ace" Franklin's come-from-behind win against Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell.

I'll touch more on why it's a "come-from-behind" later, for anyone who was unable to catch the event last night.

What else can we say judging from the fallout of the UFC's debut in Vancouver?

Let me cut out the long intro and walk you through those sayings, if you please.

"Even after Koscheck, "King Georges" still has challengers to his throne"

Divisions aren't "cleaned out" until the company decides to fold them.

There, I said it — and I'm running out of reasons why I shouldn't mean it.

All props given to Rory McDonald, because even after going through three rounds he went through, he still proved in front of Dana White and in front of a sold-out crowd in Vancouver that he's got the heart, soul, and mindset of a champion even in defeat.

Paulo Thiago is the guy I think people ought to give more a chance to. He had three unimpressive rounds against Josh Koscheck's AKA buddy, Jon Fitch, but the man bounced back by taking Jacob Volkmann and Mike "Quick" Swick in the next two fights he took.

Did I mention that Swick trains with Koscheck and Fitch at the American Kickboxing Academy (AKA)?

Paulo's 2-1 run against current AKA welterweights and Rory's heart of an "heir to the welterweight throne" notwithstanding, the displays shown by both Martin Kampmann and Carlos Condit last night served as a strong argument that one could make to defend the belief that the welterweight division isn't cleaned out just yet.

Kampmann neutralized Thiago's attempts at a takedown and controlled Thiago on the ground, while Condit's striking proved itself to be McDonald's Achilles' Heel in the fight — one that left a less than pretty imprint on the face of "The Waterboy" with about ten seconds left in the third round.

What's that tell you about the GSP-ruled weight class?

What that tells me is that Joe Silva might want to put one eye back on Kampmann, and fix the other eye on the former WEC Welterweight Champion.

If their hot streaks keep up and they see the win column more, perhaps the possibility of a Condit-Kampmann II fight might seem reasonable as a reality in order to decide a new contender to the belt.

You can't ever tell in MMA though, because as soon as you say Condit or Kampmann is ready for the upper echelon of the welterweight division, another fighter comes along with an impressive performance of his own and starts making noise in the sport.

I say this: if you aren't a Condit fan or a Kampmann fan, start becoming one because the more you ignore them, the better they're going to get with each fight.

Sooner or later, we're all going to have to give both these guys their due, because they could be the top dogs in the "GSP division."

By the time that happens, welterweight might not be the "GSP division" anymore.

"All we are saying is… give Ben a chance"

Ben Rothwell is officially on the right path in the UFC.

After his name was added to the "hit list" of Cain Velasquez at UFC 104, the original plan was to put Mirko Filipovic in the cage with Big Ben, but that plan never came to fruition, so the idea was to put him and Gilbert Yvel in the cage and see how it plays out.

In a kinder world, I would have had Rothwell's win over Yvel be by split decision because Yvel did try to submit Rothwell by triangle choke twice, but in the real world, Rothwell did more to keep Yvel at bay once the fight hit the ground.

I'm not sure if Gilbert Yvel will be cut from the UFC roster because of this loss, but Rothwell has shown improvement from the fight with Cain.

Whether or not Yvel gets cut, I still think he's a great fighter and is far from done with making a statement in the sport.

However, it's Ben Rothwell that could be the head turner in the heavyweight division.

Contender to the belt?

Not at all.

Top 5?

Not yet.

Top 10?

Not at that point yet.

Relevant to the future of the heavyweight title scene?

He could be.

Just give him a chance to show something, and he could be a contender one day."Cro Cop's not 'back', but at least he's on the right track again."

Did the win by a rear naked choke in round three resolidify Mirko Filipovic as an elite contender to the heavyweight title scene?

Of course not.

For a guy who came into the fight with only a loss to Tim Hague on his record — and had "HD" as his nickname, a nickname that I understand actually means "Hype or Die" — there was really not a whole lot of hype for Pat Barry coming into his fight with Filipovic last night.

The most hype surrounding him was the fact that he was a lethal K-1-esque kick boxer who bounced back from his loss to Hague to beat Antoni Hardonk.

I think Pat's star is definitely on the rise, and the times in which he knocked Cro Cop down and could have gone in for the finish did impress me to the point that he may slowly become one of my favorite heavyweights to watch.

Note that I said, "Pat's star is definitely on the rise."

Now, with Cain Velasquez, Junior Dos Santos, and Shane Carwin. You could say the exact same thing and it would be true as far as their records.

Carwin's undefeated in twelve, Cain's undefeated in eight, and Junior's yet to see the "L" column in eight UFC fights.

The difference: those three names, although they may seem overrated to some, have done something that Barry hadn't done before facing Cro Cop last night and that "something" is beating a big name.

Junior owns his own victory over Mirko, while Carwin has beaten Frank Mir and Cain has a "W" over Minotauro Noguiera.

Mirko's win over Pat Barry, while it is the win that Mirko needed to silence the critics, wasn't the win that he needed to tell those critics "Get scared, because I'm back and more dangerous than ever."

What it did do though, was what Joe Rogan said it would do.

Whether you saw the Countdown to UFC 115 or not, anyone who was able to catch the event last night heard Joe Rogan say in the pre-fight package that Pat Barry was the perfect fighter to face Cro Cop and find out where he stand in the 2010 version of the heavyweight ranks.

Basically, what that means is that a loss to Barry would have elevated Barry up to the level putting him up against someone like Cheick Kongo would have been a great idea, whereas, Cro Cop would unfortunately fall to about the same level as Vladimir Matyushenko.

Cro Cop would have still been exciting to watch, but a win over him wouldn't mean as much as it did when he was dominant in PRIDE.

He needed to beat Barry to remain a big deal, and he did just that.

He still stands as a guy who could be ranked among the best of the best in the heavyweight ranks right now with the win over Barry.

Still, that doesn't mean he's back. That means the respect for him is back.

The man's on a good path to be back, though.

He's just going to have to earn his respect back at the expense of some of the division's best in order to do it."The Iceman goeth, yet he hath been 'cold as ice' in his farewell."

I went for Chuck last night against Rich, and with the whole "new physique" thing going for him, I thought Chuck was going to come out in front of a sold-out audience in Vancouver and put on a performance that proved it really was the former lifestyle and not old age that weighed him down in his three-fight losing streak.

For a good portion of the first round up until the closing seconds, it seemed like that was the case.

Chuck was able to take down Rich, and he was more the aggressor than the counterpuncher that he'd been in the past.

Then, as the round came close to its end, Chuck threw a kick that caught Rich in the left forearm and went in for the beginning of the end in a style akin to what you'd expect from Wanderlei Silva.

It was the beginning of the end, but not for Franklin.

Though Franklin knew that a bone had clicked in his forearm and that some tough damage had been done, he was still able to feed a shot to Liddell and follow it up with about two or three more shots before the referee called the fight over.

A win is a win, and I'll give "Ace" his due. If a win can get pulled off with a damaged forearm, then it's tough to forget how one guy won and one guy lost.

Still, what we all should recall more than the fact that Chuck lost, or the fact that Chuck is now gone for good, or even the fact that it's just Father Time catching up to a man who I'll call this sport's greatest striker of all-time, is the performance he left behind.

He lost to Franklin, but he fought his heart out in his attempt to bring himself back into the light heavyweight picture.

Whether you liked his performance or hated it, there's no reason valid enough to make the argument that Chuck's last hurrah wasn't fitting of the man himself.

Long live San Luis Obispo's Fighting Pride. Long live The Iceman.

Long live Chuck Liddell.

As for what the future holds for "Ace," who knows?

The only thing for certain is that Rich Franklin is a few fights away from being "back"... but you can bet your bottom dollar that he will be back.

This concludes Volume One of The De Souza Special, but stay tuned, Bleacher-holics and MMA addicts alike: Dale will return with another De Souza Special for UFC 116.

Will Carwin beat Lesnar? Will Brock snap Shane's streak? What'll happen when Akiyama finally meets "The Axe Murderer?" Find out by seeing UFC 116: Lesnar Vs. Carwin on a pay-per-view basis on Independence Day weekend!