UFC 111: St Pierre vs Hardy review (DVD) ★★★★

Welterweight Bout: Matthew Riddle vs. Greg Soto ??
These two are hungry young stars in the making and it really showed in their performance. Both competent wrestlers, Riddle and Soto were playing it neutral for the most part and keeping on their feet, although the fight came to a stop on the ground in the third round, when Soto pulled back and clocked Riddle with an illegal kick, giving him what looked like a concussion and the fight was stopped. Riddle didn't have a clue where he was following the kick, but an apology was made and no bad blood was apparent from both camps after the disqualification finish.

Light Heavyweight Bout: Rodney Wallace vs. Jared Hamman ???
A very good fight from these two, who went the distance and survived, somehow, all three rounds, with Hamman getting the unanimous decision win from the judges. Somehow because both were so completely exhausted by the second round, that I was surprised no one delivered a knockout shot. And that's not to say they didn't tag each other, as they really did, but they're so incredibly resilient. Wallace, who has a tremendous physique, kicked the fight off by throwing bombs at Jared, really taking it to him, but he exerted all his energy on the first round, so for the rest of the bout it was mostly all trading shots on the ground and slipping out of submission attempts. What looked like it would be a massacre turned out to be an extremely interesting, well matched contest.

Middleweight Bout: Rousimar Palhares vs. Tomasz Drwal ?
A lightning fast victory for Palhares with the submission in just 45 seconds into the bout. Tomasz threw a kick but slipped and it cost him dearly—Palhares saw the opening and seized the opportunity in an instant to lock in a heel hook, yet he didn't release the hold for a good few seconds after Drwal tapped out, leaving him screaming in agony on the canvas for minutes after the fight. Palhares was later suspended for his actions for 90 days and deservedly so.

Welterweight Bout: Ricardo Almeida vs. Matt Brown ??
This solid fight came to a close in the second round after the Brazillian dominated Brown. He used the first round to push forward with aggression, wearing his opponent down and utilising some nice takedowns, all of which culminated to Brown being relatively easy pickings in the second; Almeida secured Matt with a back mount and turned him over into a nice body scissors, before applying a tight rear naked choke for the tapout win.

Middleweight Bout: Nate Diaz vs. Rory Markham ??
Despite Markham being six pounds overweight for this fight and thus having twenty percent of his earnings forfeited to Diaz, Nate absolutely bulldozed through him like he was nothing. The winner of The Ultimate Fighter's fifth season put on a defiant performance in his first fight in his new higher weight class, defeating Rory in just 2:47 of the opening round, nailing punches in bunches for the TKO after securing a tactical body triangle. Total domination.

Main Card

Lightweight Bout: Jim Miller vs. Mark Bocek ???
The hometown hero Jim Miller took the win in a thoroughly entertaining contest that could have gone either way, had it not been for a sudden burst of fight from Miller in the close of the final round. Momentum dramatically shifted both ways: Bocek, pain etched on his face, almost tapped out in the first to an expertly applied Kimura, but just managed to break the hold. In the second round, the tables turned and Mark had Miller desperately fighting off a rear choke on the ground for most of the five minutes. The final round proved to be more even and was a hot end to the fight, awarded via unanimous decision.

Welterweight Bout: Jon Fitch vs. Ben Saunders ??
If there was a Slaughter of the Night award, it would go to this fight. Fitch's original opponent Thiago Alves dropped out at the last minute and Saunders stepped up to the plate at short notice, which was a courageous challenge as he is a far less experienced competitor than Jon Fitch, and it showed. Saunders managed to last all three rounds, but acted pretty much as Jon's punching bag. He just could not defend against Fitch's offense, and on the mat was where he definitely did not want to be, however the majority of the fight took place there, much to the crowd's disappointment as they greeted the one-sided slugfest with a resounding chorus of jeers. Regardless, despite Saunders' refusal to go down, Fitch's victory from the judges was entirely predictable from just the second round.

Lightweight Bout: Kurt Pellegrino vs. Fabricio Camoes ???
There were plenty of submission attempts in this contest, from arma platas to a gogoplata, which concluded with a very successful rear naked choke applied by the hometown boy Pellegrino. Camoes simply isn't in Kurt's league and it was more than apparent on the night. He gave it his all in the first round, quickly leaping onto Pellegrino's back for a standing rear choke, but he couldn't quite get it locked in all the way and so his opponent managed to spin out of it. Fabricio's attempt at the submission in the first round seeped irony as Kurt used the same move to defeat him halfway through the second, except on the ground.

Interim UFC Heavyweight Championship: Frank Mir vs. Shane Carwin ???
What a shocker! Shane Carwin remains undefeated at UFC 111 in the co-main event of the evening, laying waste to fan favourite Frank Mir. Mir is a total bull of a man, he's got a win against Undisputed Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar, and he's one of the best in the world, but none of those factors meant anything when it came to this fight. Carwin is literally rampaging through the Ultimate Fighting Championship with quick victories left, right and centre, and this was no exception. You'd have expected it to be his longest fight, and it looked that way from the get-go when the two grappled in the clinch against the cage for a few moments, but Shane went bombs away out of absolutely no where, scrambling Mir's brains with powerful, powerful punches to the head. The referee should have stopped the fight about ten seconds before he did, but instead just watched Carwin as he pounded Mir into unconsciousness, before finally the bout was ended. Now that Carwin is the Interim Heavyweight Champion and will go on to face Brock Lesnar for the Undisputed Heavyweight Title at UFC 116, they both will be competing in one of the most anticipated fights of the year, and I cannot wait for it.