UFC 125 Results: What We Learned On New Year's Day

After an action packed New Years card, and a let down of a decision in the main event, there certainly was a lot that we learned.

The first thing being that the three preliminary fights on Ion television were a great idea by Dana White. He pulled this deal off in just a few days so that we, the fans, would be able to see more UFC and get a full eight fights in one night.

We also found out that nobody should ever, EVER, listen to my predictions.

Moping about my predictions aside, here is what we learned last night.

Phil Baroni May Be Done, But Refuses To Quit

After a first round KO, Phil Baroni said in his post-fight press conference that he expected to be cut from the UFC, where he now holds a 3-7 record, 0-2 in his return.

On the other hand, Brad Tavares is now 7-0, 2-0 in the UFC. So I'm not sure how much of the win was him being good, or Baroni being bad, but Tavares looks like he might be able to make some waves at middleweight.

It Is a DAMN Good Thing That Josh Grispi Didn't Fight Jose Aldo

For 15 whole minutes, Dustin Poirier man handled Josh Grispi. Grispi could not mount any sufficient offense and Poirier just shut him down.

For Grispi's own sake, he should thank his lucky stars that Aldo got hurt.

Poirier now looks like he may be a force at featherweight, although he is only 2-1 in his WEC/ UFC career, so he is at least two more fights from a title shot.

Marcus Davis Still Has Fight in Him, But May Not Have the Chin To Back It Up

For 12 minutes and 30 seconds, Marcus Davis was easily out-boxing Jeremy Stephens, then he got caught.

Not only did he get caught, but he got knocked the **** out. Then he got punched one more time while on the ground and that was it.

Davis has now gone 3-5 in his last eight and 1-4 in his last five. It may be time for him to call it quits.

Jeremy Stephens also now has three KO of the Night bonuses.

Clay Guida is a Fan of Metal Music

How else do you explain all the head banging?

The other option is that that was his gameplan so that Gomi would just kind of look at him and have no idea what to do.

Gomi was obviously confused and annoyed with it, and there was simply nothing he could do to stop him.

So in the second round, Guida locked in a guillotine choke and submitted one of the greatest lightweights of all time.

Takanori Gomi Cannot Compete With UFC Lightweights

Takanori Gomi is now 1-2 in the UFC, with his one win coming against Tyson Griffin, who is on a three fight skid himself.

But there was just nothing that Gomi could do against Guida. And Guida is pretty much the line dividing the contenders from the pretenders.

Gomi may head to Strikeforce soon enough.

Nate Diaz Will Never Fight for a Title

Diaz was totally controlled by Dong Hyun Kim for the first two rounds of their fight, and even when he came out in the third round and won, it was too little too late.

So if Diaz can't string together three wins at welterweight, and can't beat Gray Maynard or Clay Guida at lightweight, it seems as though he will never be a contender for a title.

He will continue with an average career, and he will be a gatekeeper for whatever division he decides to stay in.

Dong-Hyun Kim is the Stun Gun

As he said several times, his name is Stun Gun, and he wants GSP. He also continues his undefeated streak in the UFC, (5-0 (1 NC)).

I think with two more fights, he may get his shot at that welterweight title.

Brandon Vera Will Be Very Successful...

...in Strikeforce.

After being controlled, taunted, embarrassed and bitch slapped for three full rounds by Thiago Silva, Vera will be cut, if he hasn't already. Wikipedia says he has, but I don't trust Wikipedia.

In the third round, Vera's nose was destroyed, his face was bitch slapped, and his back was used as bongos. He was totally embarrassed and doesn't deserve to be in the UFC. He is now on a three fight losing streak and will be shown his walking papers pretty soon.

That nose is just awful.

Thiago Silva Will Fight for a Title In 2011

Vera getting embarrassed was only half the story. The other half was that Thiago Silva COULD embarrass Vera that way.

Silva now has a 15-2 MMA record, with his only losses coming to Lyoto Machida by knockout and Rashad Evans by decision. I'm not making excuses for the loss to Evans, but he did have three herniated discs before that fight.

I think that next, Silva will fight the winner of Jones/ Bader, and then the winner of that can take on one of the top four light heavyweights in Shogun, Rashad, Lyoto or Rampage. Then the winner of that gets a title shot. So maybe not 2011. But Silva will get a title shot in the next year or two.

Chris Leben's 2011 Won't Live Up to 2010

Leben was stopped by strikes for only the second time in his career. The other time he was stopped was by some guy named Anderson, but whatever.

Leben had his hopes on getting a title shot this year, but after a loss to Stann, that's looking unlikely. It appears that Leben will finish his career as a wildly exciting fighter, but nothing more than that.

Brian Stann is the Real Deal

At this point, most people are aware of the fact that Brian Stann asked for this fight. He asked for it to challenge himself, and boy, did he deliver.

He was beating the living hell out of Leben, so much so that Leben fell three times before the referee finally had to stop it. 

With his beatdown of Leben, Stann just threw his name into the middleweight title mix. He asked for a match with Wanderlei, but he seems to be a hot commodity these days, so don't count on it.

Maybe a match against Marquardt next?

Frankie Edgar May Not Have a Great Chin, But Boy, Does He Have Heart

In what turned out to be a fantastic fight, Frankie Edgar truly did show the heart of a champion.

After getting rocked badly two (or was it three?) times in the first round, he came out in round two and handled Gray Maynard.

The rest of the fight was a fantastic back and forth battle. There were barely any takedowns, but when there were, they were spectacular.

When Edgar lifted and slammed Maynard, I yelled out "holy s*it!!!"

That fight has all the makings of a classic, and I'd like to throw in in there as an early fight of the year candidate. (not much to compete with, eh?)

Gray Maynard Isn't Just a Wrestler

Maynard has a nine second knockout for a reason...he has really, really good boxing.

Maynard showcased that he can manage to go five full rounds and that he doesn't just have to wrestle you to beat you. Him and Edgar pretty much just boxed for the full 25 minutes, and it was fantastic.

MMA Judges Will Never Get It Right

Now I tried to figure it out; feel free to correct me in the comments if I'm wrong.

A 10-8 round for each fighter. A 10-9 round for each fighter. And a 10-10 round.

Is that how one judge came up with 47-47? And if so, could someone tell me who got what in what round?

And how did one judge see it 48-46 and one see it 46-48?

If anyone could explain it to me, I would greatly appreciate it.

Regardless, they're never going to get it right, because there's always going to be people who complain. There does need to be an education process for them, but that's not the point I'm going to make. The whole job of a judge is to pick a winner, right?

So when someone scores it 47-47, they're just not doing their job.

Thank God that Cecil Peoples wasn't involved in this one.

But Dana White Will

In the post-fight press conference, it was said by someone high up in the UFC that Anthony Pettis would fight for the lightweight title next.

Then about two hours later, Dana White came in and said Edgar-Maynard III would happen next. That is the right call, and it gives Maynard a second chance to win that title. Edgar-Maynard III will be a huge fight, and depending on what happens, Edgar-Maynard IV wouldn't be an impossibility.

Lets just hope that the third fight of this trilogy is another epic war.

Brittney Palmer Is Gorgeous

Yeah, just enjoy that.

Thanks for reading!