Last Saturday night, the UFC invaded the Philips Arena in Atlanta for UFC 88: "Breakthrough." The fans watching live or on pay-pay-view were very entertained as they got to see four knockouts.
There were nine fights on the card and only four of them ended up in a decision. Besides the four knockouts, there was one fight that ended due to a submission.
The most devastating knockout belonged to "Sugar" Rashad Evans when he used an overhand right to knock down Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell in the show's main event. (watch the clip below)
Referee Herb Dean stopped the fight immediately after Liddell fell to the mat.
Evans was a big underdog going into the fight and the majority of MMA fans and experts felt he had no chance in winning the fight. This was because Liddell was thought to be the better striker of the two.
What fans and experts did not take into account was that Evans is younger, faster, and more athletic than the 38-year-old Iceman.
You can't hit what you can't catch and Liddell could not catch Evans enough in the cage to land his right hand. Liddell was stalking Evans for most of the fight.
The first round did not have any action at all as both fighters were in a feeling out process. They kept on circling for most of the round with Evans doing a lot of dancing and shimmy shaking as well.
In fact, Evans was dancing and shimmy shaking all night long. He danced on his way into the cage, during the fight, and after the fight.
Some will call it showboating but I think it is just Evans' way of getting himself pumped up for the fight and to get his adrenaline pumping.
In round two, Evans caught Liddell with some good hooks and then landed a overhand right to end the main event. Liddell was going for an uppercut and left himself wide open.
The Iceman needs to rethink his game plan for his future fights and start to keep his hands up instead of dropping them low. Prehaps new sparring partners and trainers will help him too.
Evans will receive a title shot against UFC light heavyweight champion, Forrest Griffin, at the end of this year.
In other fights, Rich Franklin defeated Matt "The Hammer" Hamill after a leg kick to the liver. Franklin moved up a weight class to fight Hamill and was much smaller than Hamill.
Franklin countered Hamill's strength advantage with his speed.
Nate Marquardt won by TKO over Martin Kampmann in a quick but exciting fight. The fight was very one-sided though as Marquardt dominated Kampmann in the stand-up.
In the first fight of the night on the pay-per-view show, Dong Hyun Kim won a split decision over Matt Brown. The crowd in Atlanta didn't like Kim because he was South Korean.
They were cheering on Brown throughout the fight and booed loudly when Kim was awarded the win by the judges.
Kim dominated Brown in the fight and almost ended it in the first round with a standing rear-naked choke. Kim should have won by unanimous decision but one of the judges awarded the fight to Brown. What fight was he watching?
Dan Henderson won by unanimous decision over Rousimar Palhares in another fight on the pay-per-view card. This fight was boring as Palhares tried about ten takedowns which Henderson defended well. This was not an exciting fight at all.
The winners of the prelim matches were Ryo Chonan, Kurt Pellegrino, Tim Boetsch, and Jason McDonald.
Overall, UFC 88 was one of UFC's better shows of late.
The next UFC show will be on September 17, and the show will be shown free on Spike TV.