Depending on whom you ask, the debut of UFC on Fox Sports 1 on Saturday night was a big success, as people at Fox Sports are saying that the Fight Night card was entertaining and PPV-worthy, while everyone else is saying, “Yeah, that was good, I guess.” But the person who will – and probably has and still is – tell you that it was an enormous success was the night’s big winner, Chael Sonnen, who put doubters like me to shame with a first round submission win over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.
Sonnen went on to call out Wanderlei Silva as we all expected he would if he won, which is fine because the far worse alternative would have been him calling out Anderson Silva for the No. 1 contender spot or Chris Weidman for the Middleweight title. I’m sure that’s coming soon enough, but for now we can be happy that Sonnen is just focused on Silva.
As for the rest of the evening’s loaded fight card results…
UFC on Fox Sports 1 Main Event
Chael Sonnen def. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua – Guillotine (Round 1)
When asked if Sonnen will get his shot against Wanderlei, UFC President Dana White got a little defensive on Sonnen’s behalf over the media’s rankings. He thinks that Sonnen should be ranked higher than No. 9, which is where he’s been for quite some time, and his justification for that is that Sonnen is a versatile guy who fights back and forth between middleweight and light heavyweight for the good of the company and just plain, old competition.
Again, I think it’s actually because White wants to make sure that Sonnen and his mouth are always in a title conversation, regardless of his title match record, and I’m cool with that. But make this Wanderlei fight happen first, please.
Co-Main Event
Travis Browne def. Alistair Overeem – KO (Round 1)
Thanks for your efforts, Overeem, but it’s time to go away now. Go hang out with Tito Ortiz in TNA.
Uriah Faber def. Yuri Alcantara – Unanimous Decision
Matt Brown def. Mike Pyle – KO (Round 1)
John Howard def. Uriah Hall – Split Decision
Michael Johnson def. Joe Lauzon – Unanimous Decision
Preliminary Fights
Michael McDonald def. Brad Pickett – Triangle choke (Round 2)
Conor McGregor def. Max Holloway – Unanimous Decision
Steven Siler def. Mike Brown – KO (Round 1)
Diego Brandao def. Daniel Pineda – Unanimous Decision
Facebook Fights
Manvel Gamburyan def. Cole Miller – Unanimous Decision
Ovince St. Preux def. Cody Donovan – KO (Round 1)
James Vick def. Ramsey Nijem – Guillotine Choke (Round 1)
Meanwhile, In Pissed Off Former Employees Who Retired News
TMZ caught up with new Bellator/TNA star Tito Ortiz as he returned from a tank top contest in Afghanistan, and the camera man asked him if he has any plans of squashing his beef with Dana White and reopening the door for an eventual UFC return that pretty much none of us wants. Ortiz, to his credit, was very positive and realistic.
Notice he didn’t say, “Screw UFC” at any point but TMZ wrote that as the title anyway? That’s called click-baiting. And it worked, because here I am writing about it.
