Power Ranking Every UFC Event Through The First Half Of 2011

Ladies and gentleman, we're already halfway through 2011 and it's been a hell of a year for the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The UFC has put on a ton of fantastic shows already this year and there's a lot more to come.

Let's take a look back at all of the awesome shows the UFC has put on so far this year... and the ones that were maybe not so great.

No. 13: The Ultimate Fighter: Team Dos Santos vs Team Lesnar Finale

Main Event: Ramsay Nijem vs Tony Ferguson

It comes as no surprise that this one comes in last.

The UFC doesn't usually bring out many A-fighters for Ultimate Fighter finales.

Fans were actually treated to one of the biggest fights to ever be assigned to a UFF, Clay Guida vs Anthony Pettis.

However, there was a lot of hype surrounding this bout and, ultimately, the fight failed to deliver.

It wasn't a totally boring fight, but it lacked the fireworks that Pettis has been known to give. Mostly, what we saw was Guida controlling Anthony on the ground and Pettis using his crafty guard to keep Clay uncomfortable.

A good fight for fans of the technical stuff, but not a crowd-pleaser in general.

There were a few good fights on the card. In particular, Kyle Kingsbury vs Fabio Maldonado, which won the fight of the night award. There were also a few solid knockouts.

Overall though, this card didn't have much name value for the fans to get behind.

Also, many of the fighters on the card were from that season of The Ultimate Fighter. Most of the fighters from the show are novices when it comes to MMA and they tend to not put on the most exciting fights.

No. 12: UFC Fight Night: Nogueira vs Davis

Main Event: Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs Phil Davis

Going into this one, most people knew the main event wasn't going to be terribly exciting. So, they were banking on the co-main event, a potential barn burner between Dan Hardy and Anthony Johnson, to provide some fireworks.

Unfortunately, Johnson decided to use his wrestling ability to take the fight to the ground and win the fight that way. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but Hardy's surprisingly active guard neutralized much of Anthony's offense.

The main event, as many predicted, was unsatisfying. It was sort of a sloppy looking affair, with Davis frequently shooting for take-downs and achieving them often enough to out-point Little Nog.

When the fight did hit the ground, not much happened. Davis was likely afraid to take risks, due to Nogueira's crafty jiu-jitsu game.

The main card did have a saving grace in the form of Chan Sung Jung submitting Leonard Garcia with a twister. Chan was the first fighter to pull off that submission in the UFC.

The under card for this event was also not too shabby, but it's the main and co-main events that count the most and those were pretty underwhelming.

No. 11: UFC 127

Main Event: BJ Penn vs Jon Fitch

UFC 127 was a card shrouded in controversy.

The co-main event of the evening was a highly anticipated match up between Michael Bisping and Jorge Rivera. Stylistically, it had all the right tools to be an exciting fight and the extreme animosity between the two fighters only helped to build its momentum.

Unfortunately, it appeared as though Bisping went in the fight with a little bit too much pent up aggression, as he floored Jorge with a blatantly illegal knee in the first round.

The knee hurt Rivera badly and instead of apologizing for his illegal blow, Michael gestured to the crowd to cheer for him.

After being given some time to recover, Jorge decided to continue on with the rest of the fight, but it was clear he never recovered from the knee.

Bisping would go on to win with a second round TKO and after the fight he spit at Rivera's corner.

It was a shameful display on Bisping's part and really put a sour taste in the viewer's mouth.

The main event of the evening was a welterweight title eliminator between BJ Penn and Jon Fitch.

The fight wasn't a fan friendly fight, as can be said for most Jon Fitch bouts, and it also ended with a controversial decision.

Also, Chris Lytle and Carlos Condit were supposed to meet at this event, in what was being considered a fight of the year candidate, but Condit was forced to pull out due to injury.

Condit was replaced by Brian Ebersole and the fight still ended up being pretty good, but it wasn't the fight people thought they were going to see.

No. 10: UFC Fight for the Troops 2

Main Event: Melvin Guillard vs Evan Dunham

There's not a whole lot to complain about for this one.

Obviously, there was a lack of big names on the card, but that's to be expected for a free event.

It fell a little short, given that the last three fights ended with first round stoppages.

I usually prefer for there to be some quick stoppages early on the card and then for the later fights to be longer and more competitive, since the last fights are generally the ones I'm most looking forward to.

That said, there was still a lot to be happy about.

Quite a few fights ended with knockouts.

On the under-card, DeMarques Johnson won by submission using a body triangle, which you don't see often.

Scrappy young Cody Mckenzie took on veteran Yves Edwards and the two put on a great back and forth battle that earned them Fight of the Night.

UFC Fight for the Troops Two was a good watch, all things considered (especially since it was free).

No. 9: UFC 130

Main event: Quinton Jackson vs Matt Hamill

It bums me out when I think about how great this card could have been.

UFC 130 was originally supposed to be headlined by lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard.

The two met in the main event of UFC 125 and put on a Fight of the Year performance and because of how great that fight was a lot of people were hyped up to see them go at it again.

Both fighters were forced to withdraw from the fight due to injury, however, and the co-main event between Quinton Jackson and Thiago Silva was promoted to main event.

Then, more bad news.

It was revealed that the drug test from Thiago Silva's last fight did not come back clean and he was forced to back out of the fight.

So, Thiago was replaced with Matt Hamill, who isn't quite a top level fighter and most fans weren't interested in seeing him in a main event scrap.

In summary, the main event was cancelled and they were forced to use their co-main event as the main event. Then that fight was made somewhat uninteresting when Thiago was removed from the equation.

Luckily, the fight that was promoted to co-main event, a match between Roy Nelson and Frank Mir, ended up being a fun, albeit very sloppy looking fight.

Also on the card, we saw Travis Browne knockout Stefan Struve with a superman punch in the first round.

And who could forget Rick Story pulling off one of the biggest upsets of the year by defeating highly regarded welterweight Thiago Alves.

No. 8: UFC Live: Kongo vs Barry

Main event: Cheick Kongo vs Pat Barry

UFC Live: Kongo vs Barry was another event drastically worsened by fights being scrapped.

The main event of the night was originally Nate Marquardt, who was making his welterweight debut, vs Anthony Johnson.

However, the main event became Nate Marquardt vs Rick Story when Johnson was injured during training and deemed unable to fight.

After that, Marquardt failed his medicals before the fight and wasn't allowed to compete. So, Rick Story's opponent was switched to Charlie Brenneman and the fight was demoted to co-main event, the new main event being Cheick Kongo vs Pat Barry.

Martin Kampmann was also originally supposed to compete at this event, but was injured and replaced by Matt Brown.

Given all the wrenches in this events' gears, the whole thing ended up going over pretty smoothly.

Kongo vs Barry was a spectacular main event and ended in dramatic and climactic fashion. Barry hurt Kongo badly in the first round and twice it looked like Cheick was about to go limp, when out of the blue he staggered back to his feet. Cheick was still on wobbly legs, but Pat charged in too aggressively and Kongo knocked him out cold with a couple big shots.

Other than that, we saw Matt Mitrione continue to impress by knocking out Christian Morecraft in the second round and last minute replacement Charlie Brenneman upsetting Rick Story, winning by unanimous decision.

No. 7: UFC 131

Main Event: Junior Dos Santos vs Shane Carwin

The further I get into this article, the more I realize what a terrible year it's been for injuries.

The original main event for this card was Brock Lesnar vs Junior Dos Santos, but Brock got injured and Shane Carwin stepped in to make it a slightly more interesting, yet significantly less marketable fight.

UFC 131 was a card of consistently good fights, but lacked a great fight.

All the main card bouts were entertaining.

Kenny Florian made his featherweight debut, winning a hard fought decision over Diego Nunes.

Mark Munoz and Demian Maia fought, both men looking to prove that they deserve to be in the title hunt. Maia showed extraordinary improvements in his stand-up game, but wasn't able to top Munoz, who used his wrestling to control the fight.

Jon Olav Einemo and Dave Herman earned themselves Fight of the Night. The fight was scrappy and mostly pretty even... that is until Herman TKO'd Einemo in the second round.

The main event was a completely one-sided affair. Dos Santos made it apparent early in the fight that his boxing was on another level than Shane's was. The fight was still very exciting to watch, however, because Junior had clearly worked hard on rounding out his skills and threw quite a few unexpected kicks and even scored a couple take-downs (unexpected given Carwin's wrestling credentials).

No. 6: UFC Live: Sanchez vs Kampmann

Main Event: Diego Sanchez vs Martin Kampmann

It's always nice when the main event of the evening is also the best fight. It's wonderfully climactic, plus the main event is usually the most anticipated fight of the night, so it's nice for it to satisfy the expectations surrounding it.

Diego Sanchez vs Martin Kampmann was definitely the best fight on March 3rd.

Sanchez spent a lot of the fight looking for takedowns, but only managed to complete on one out of 17 attempts, so most of fight took place on the feet.

It was a classic match up between brawler (Sanchez) and technical striker (Kampmann).

Unfortunately, while it was a great fight, it did end somewhat controversially. Sanchez was named the winner by unanimous decision, but Fightmetric had Martin out-pointing Diego by almost 30 strikes.

Given that Sanchez' wrestling was largely ineffective, Kampmann landing more punches and Diego's face being a bloody mess at the end of the fight, most believed that Martin deserved the win.

Brian Bowles made an impressive debut on the card. He submitted Damacio Page at 3:30 of the first round with a guillotine choke. The crazy thing about this fight is it was the second time Bowles had defeated Damacio with a guillotine choke at exactly 3:30 of the first round.

There were a quite a few exciting knockouts on the card, with Mark Munoz knocking out CB Dollaway in the first round. Thiago Tavares vs Shane Roller and Igor Pokrajac vs Todd Brown were also aired on the main card and both ended due to strikes.

No. 5: UFC 126

Main Event: Anderson Silva vs Vitor Belfort

UFC 126 was a stacked card.

In the main event of the evening, we saw Anderson Silva finish Vitor Belfort with the first ever front kick knockout in the history of the UFC (and maybe all of MMA). It was a spectacular finish and is definitely a knockout of the year contender.

The co-main event was a fight between two of the most popular fighters in UFC history, Rich Franklin and Forrest Griffin. It was an entertaining fight and Forrest Griffin took the decision. It was probably good that it ended in a decision because fans usually don't like seeing their favorite fighters get hurt.

Current UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones first established himself as a title contender on this card, submitting Ryan Bader with a second round guillotine choke.

Jake Ellenberger and Miguel Torres were both featured on the main card and they are two fighters who almost always put on a good show.

The main card was a touch decision-heavy, so the promotion aired some under-card fights on the PPV that ended in exciting finishes.

No. 4: UFC 128

Main event: Mauricio Rua vs Jon Jones

UFC 128 was yet another card with a main event altered due to injury. Mauricio Rua was initially scheduled to take on Rashad Evans, but Evans injured his knee in training and Jon Jones stepped in to take his place.

The swap out for Jones wasn't a huge deal, as a lot of fight fans were more excited to see Jon fight Rua than Rashad.

The fight ended up being a pretty one-sided bout. Jones completely dominated the fight en route to finishing him off by TKO in the third round.

Urijah Faber impressed in his second fight at bantamweight, decisively defeating Eddie Wineland in the co-main event of the evening.

Jim Miller continued to climb the lightweight ranks by defeating Kamal Shalorus by third round TKO. Up until the finish the fight was fast paced and wildly entertaining.

We also saw Nate Marquardt return to form, defeating Dan Miller via unanimous decision and Brendan Schaub move up the heavyweight ladder by knocking out Mirko Cro Cop in the third round.

No. 3: UFC 129

Main Event: Georges St-Pierre vs Jake Shields

UFC 129 is one of the most significant events in UFC history.

It was the promotion's first event in the province of Ontario and also had the largest attendance of any UFC event by a significant margin.

The main event of the evening was a bit of a disappointment. Georges St-Pierre is often criticized for fighter safety and in the beginnings of his fight with Jake Shields, we saw him fight more aggressively than he has in his past few outings. Regrettably, GSP sustained an eye injury that left his vision blurred part way through the fight and was forced to fight more tentatively.

It was still a solid fight and St-Pierre managed to win decisively, but it wasn't the highlight of the evening.

The co-main event of the evening saw Jose Aldo defending his featherweight championship for the first time in the UFC against Mark Hominick. The fight was mostly dominated by Aldo, but fans were touched by Mark's resolve. Hominick stuck in there until the final bell and even managed to win the last round decisively.

UFC 129 was easily the best card of the year for exciting finishes. Lyoto Machida knocked out Randy Couture with a flying front kick, Pablo Garza caught Yves Jabouin with a flying triangle choke and John Makdessi defeated Kyle Watson with a spinning back fist.

No. 2: UFC 125

Maint Event: Frankie Edgar vs Gray Maynard

Frankie Edgar vs Gray Maynard Two is easily the front runner so far for Fight of the Year.

Maynard hurt Edgar in the first round with a massive left hand and followed up with vicious swarms of punches. Most observers thought Frankie absorbed too much damage and that there was no way he could recover, but by the end of the round, Frankie was starting to get his legs back.

Edgar would make it out of that round and give Gray a competitive fight for the next four. Frankie couldn't do enough to pull out the win, but he did enough to get a draw and retain his belt.

In the co-main event, Brian Stann made a big statement to the middleweight division by knocking out Chris Leben in the first round. Stann became just the second man in the UFC to finish Leben with strikes, the first being long time middleweight champion Anderson Silva.

Clay Guida established himself as a top contender in the lightweight division by submitting Pride legend Takanori Gomi with a guillotine choke.

The knockout of the night bonus went to Jermery Stephens, who was fighting on the under-card. Stephens was likely losing his fight with Marcus Davis, but pulled off the comeback by viciously knocking Marcus out in the third round.

No. 1: UFC 132

Main Event: Dominick Cruz vs Urijah Faber

Dominick Cruz defended his bantamweight belt at UFC 132 for the first time in the UFC. His opponent was long time rival Urijah Faber. The bout was intriguing because the two men openly dislike each other and because Urijah already owned a victory over Cruz.

Cruz was looking to show fans how much he had improved since the first fight and that's exactly what he did. It was a competitive fight and Cruz did better at timing Dominick's unusual striking than anyone else has, but Dominick did win it decisively.

There's nothing quite like a competitive, five round championship fight; it's the perfect way to close out a pay-per-view.

Probably the best part of UFC 132 was its total unpredictability.

Chris Leben and Wanderlei Silva met in the co-main event of the evening. People thought Wanderlei's striking would be too much for Chris to handle, but he ended up knocking Silva out in under 30 seconds.

Carlos Condit vs Dong Hyun Kim was expected to be a very close fight, but Condit won in the first round with a flying knee followed by punches.

By far the biggest surprise of the evening was Tito Ortiz vs Ryan Bader. Ortiz had not won a fight in five years and most were certain he would lose to Bader and be forced into retirement. However, Dana White said that Tito fights best with his back against the wall and it turned out he was right. Ortiz rocked Bader with a thunderous right hand in the first round and followed it up quickly with a guillotine choke to earn the submission victory.