UFC 135 Results: High Altitude in Denver Takes Toll on Fighters

UFC 135: Jones vs. Rampage marked the return of the world's most popular mixed martial arts league to Denver for the first time since UFC The Ultimate Ultimate in 1995.

Of course, there's a reason the Ultimate Fighting Championship took such a long time to get back to Denver, Colorado — the altitude.

The thin air has clearly affected Saturday night's fights at the Pepsi Center, particularly those that extended into the third round.

That much became clear during the preliminary fights, when the Featherweight bout between Junior Assuncao and Eddie Yagin devolved into a breathless bludgeoning of a winded Yagin by Assuncao.

Yagin was so winded, in fact, that referee Josh Rosenthal had to implore him to keep fighting at one point in the third round while Assuncao was assaulting him with blows to his head and body.

The trend continued between Tim "The Barbarian" Boetsch and Nick "The Promise" Ring when, like clockwork, the two middleweights went weak in the third round. Boetsch managed to pull off a textbook hip throw to seal the decision in his favor, but not before he and Ring huffed and puffed their way around the Octagon, launching tired blows all the while.

The altitude really took its toll, though, once the heavyweights stepped into the Octagon. Stamina was the order of the day between Travis "Hapa" Browne and and Rob "The Bear" Broughton. Browne appeared to tire early in the third round, withstanding some early blows from Broughton and circling just to catch his breath before launching into another attack. The two fighters attempted to grapple a bit toward the end of the fight, but neither could must enough energy to exert control over the other. 

And then came Rothwell v. Hunt.

Ben Rothwell could barely hold up into the third round, and not just because Mark Hunt beat the stuffing out of him in the second. "Big Ben" was saved by the whistle at the end of the second round and needed extra time in between rounds just to gather himself. Joe Rogan said during the broadcast that he'd never seen someone look so tired in the Octagon.

Granted, Rothwell's busted nose probably didn't help his cause any or make it any easier to take in what sparse oxygen he could gather in each breath.

But it did lay bear exactly why the UFC took nearly 16 years to come back to Denver, why the league that began in Denver, with UFC 1: The Beginning in 1993, has so sparsely been back since.

Because, in short, the altitude takes too much of a toll on the quality of the fights. The last thing Dana White and company want is for their fights to turn into snoozers on account of thin air.

The very same thin air that the UFC will vanish into, hardly to return to the Mile High City in the future.

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