Anderson Silva Defeats Chael-Sonnen – (Photo: Mark J. Rebilas-US PRESSWIRE)

UFC 148 took place this Saturday night in Las Vegas, Nevada at the MGM grand, and the UFC delivered on what may turn out to be the biggest event in the company’s history. Over 15,000 fans filled the arena for the United States’ largest UFC box office of 7 million dollars and according to President Dana White all metrics point to this being the largest pay per view buy rate in company history.

The main event featured the biggest rematch in UFC history that pitted Champion Anderson Silva against Chael Sonnen.  The first round looked similar to the first four rounds of their first fight, but it was Anderson SIlva who figured out Sonnen’s timing and began landing strikes that rattled and dropped him in the second round. Sonnen was finished seconds later by technical knockout and Silva defended his title for the tenth time and extending his winning streak to fifteen(both UFC records.) Silva was awarded the knockout of the night bonus for the finish as well ($75k.)

In the co-main event it was the rubber match between Tito Ortiz and Forrest Griffin. The third fight looked much like their first two fights, but it was Forrest Griffin who was able to squeak out two rounds and get the unanimous decision win. The fight was also awarded the fight of the night honors($75k.) Ortiz made it official, and retired after the fight. Tito had a big day, as he was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame earlier in the afternoon.

Main Card
Middleweight Championship Title Bout
Anderson Silva 184 lbs vs. Chael Sonnen 185 lbs
Anderson Silva defeats Chael Sonnen by Technical Knockout at 1:51 of round 2

Light Heavyweight
Forrest Griffin 204 lbs vs. Tito Ortiz 204 lbs
Forrest Griffin defeats Tito Ortiz by Unanimous Decision (29-28×3)

Middleweight
Cung Le 185 lbs vs. Patrick Côté 185 lbs
Cung Le defeats Patrick Côté by Unanimous Decision (30-27×3)

Welterweight
Dong Hyun Kim 170 lbs vs. Demian Maia 170 lbs
Demian Maia defeats Dong Hyun Kim by Technical Knockout (Strikes) at :47 of round 1

Featherweight
Chad Mendes 146 lbs vs. Cody McKenzie 145 lbs
Chad Mendes defeats Cody McKenzie by Technical Knockout (Punch to the body) at :31 of round 1

Bantamweight
Ivan Menjivar 136 lbs vs. Mike Easton 135 lbs
Mike Easton defeats Ivan Menjivar by Unanimous Decision (30-27×2, 29-28)

Preliminary Card on FX
Lightweight
Gleison Tibau 155 lbs vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov 155 lbs
Khabib Nurmagomedov defeats Gleison Tibau by Unanimous Decision (30-27×3)

Lightweight
Melvin Guillard 155 lbs vs. Fabrício Camões 156 lbs
Melvin Guillard defeats Fabrício Camões by Unanimous Decision (30-27×3)

Middleweight
Constantinos Philippou 186 lbs vs. Riki Fukuda 185 lbs
Constantinos Philippou defeats Riki Fukuda by Unanimous Decision (30-27×2, 28-28)

Lightweight
John Alessio 156 lbs vs. Shane Roller 155 lbs
Shane Roller defeats John Alessio by Unanimous Decision (29-28×3)

Preliminary Card on Facebook
Lightweight
Rafaello Oliveira  156 lbs vs. Yoislandy Izquierdo 156 lbs
Rafaello Oliveira defeats Yoislandy Izquierdo by Unanimous Decision (29-28×3)

LAS VEGAS, NV – JULY 6: (L-R) Opponents Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen face off during the UFC 148 weigh-in at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on July 6, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

The UFC 148 weigh ins took place today in Las Vegas, Nevada for the biggest UFC pay per view of the year. All fighters made weight for the event, and all bouts will take place as scheduled. The talk is over, the fight has been sold, and the only thing left for the fighters to do is fight. Things got animated in the stare down when Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva bumped into Chael Sonnen, and they were immediately separated. Below are the full weigh in results for UFC 148.

Middleweight Championship Title Bout
Anderson Silva 184 lbs
Chael Sonnen 185 lbs

Light Heavyweight
Forrest Griffin 204 lbs
Tito Ortiz 204 lbs

Middleweight
Cung Le 185 lbs
Patrick Côté 185 lbs

Welterweight
Dong Hyun Kim 170 lbs
Demian Maia 170 lbs

Featherweight
Chad Mendes 146 lbs
Cody McKenzie 145 lbs

Bantamweight
Ivan Menjivar 136 lbs
Mike Easton 135 lbs

Preliminary Card on FX
Lightweight
Gleison Tibau 155  lbs
Khabib Nurmagomedov 155 lbs

Lightweight
Melvin Guillard 155 lbs
Fabrício Camões 156 lbs

Middleweight
Constantinos Philippou 186 lbs
Riki Fukuda 185 lbs

Lightweight
John Alessio 156 lbs
Shane Roller 155 lbs

Preliminary Card on Facebook
Lightweight
Rafaello Oliveira  156 lbs
Yoislandy Izquierdo 156 lbs

UFC 148 is beginning to shape up nicely and is looking like a brilliant card. The event is set to take place in Las Vegas, Nevada at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday, July 7.

With the main event being the rubber match for the bantamweight title between champion Dominick Cruz and long time rival Urijah Faber, the card already has drawing power. With the score tied at 1-1 between the current The Ultimate Fighter coaches this bout looks set to be an explosive affair. Especially when you consider the bitter relationship between the two now being fuelled as they spend more time together than they ever have before during the filming of the reality show. Urijah Faber is the only man to have ever beaten Cruz and is looking to get the belt which he feels he deserves and should be the rightful owner of. Cruz has changed a lot as a fighter since that loss to Faber, which took place at WEC 26 in 2007 in the featherweight division. He will be bringing a ten-fight win streak into this fight.

When you add to the main event the recent additions of Cung Le vs. Rich Franklin; Forrest Griffin vs. Tito Ortiz 3 (in what is set to be Ortiz’ retirement match), Demian Maia vs. Dong Hyun Kim and Michael Bisping vs. Tim Boetsch, this card could end up being the biggest event of the summer.

San Shou icon and former Strikeforce middleweight champion Cung Le looks to rebound after a TKO loss to the legendary Wanderlei Silva with a win over another legend of the sport in the always tough fan favourite Rich “Ace” Franklin. Rich returns to his natural home of middleweight for the bout after fighting at light heavyweight in his previous fights. Franklin is a former middleweight champion and is also looking to get back to winning ways after a loss to Forrest Griffin at UFC 126. Neither fighter has ever lost two in a row in their professional careers and will be looking to keep that record intact.

Tito Ortiz will look to finish his career in style by winning the trilogy with “The Original Ultimate Fighter” Forrest Griffin. These two are almost certainly future UFC hall of famers with both guys helping build the sport and the UFC to what it is today; albeit by totally different methods. Tito was the loudmouthed punk who would trash talk everybody and anybody and do the “Gravedigger” routine at the end of fights, who the fans would love to hate. While Forrest Griffin made history and became a huge favourite for his performance in The Ultimate Fighters original season, finishing it off with a legendary match in the finale with Stephan Bonner. The Griffin-Bonnar one fight is what many believe is the greatest ever MMA fight. Both are still big draws and this is a bout both have wanted for some time to settle the score once and for all. Win, lose or draw both guys will give it their all as always and the fans will no doubt be left with a nostalgic feeling as “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” enters the Octagon for the final time.

Tim Boetsch scored the biggest win of his career in a spectacular come from behind knockout of Yushin Okami at UFC 144 and immediately asked for a top contender to cement his place in the upper echelons of the division. His request was granted with British star Michael Bisping who recently lost a close number-one-contender match against Chael Sonnen. While UFC matchmaker Joe Silva doesn’t usually like to match up a recent winner with a recent loser, Bisping showed a great display against Sonnen and in a win here will most likely go straight back to the front of the pecking order.

Demian Maia makes the drop to welterweight and is met by the ‘Stun Gun’ Dong Hyun Kim. Kim had opened his professional career with a 16-0 record before losing to current interim title holder Carlos Condit. The Korean has since bounced back with a decision win over Sean Pierson whilst Maia enters looking to get back to winning ways after a decision loss to middleweight prospect Chris Weidman.

Another matchup recently announced for the card is a bantamweight fight between the always impressive Renan Barao and Jeff Hougland. Barao is on an unbelievable 29 fight unbeaten streak after losing his first professional bout and is thought to be next in line for a bantamweight title shot. Hougland enters on the back of a nine fight win streak and a recent UFC debut win.

The only other match announced at this time is a middleweight bout between Constantinos Phillipou and DEEP veteran Riki Fukuda.

Stay tuned to MMARecap as more fights are announced.

UFC 144 took place on Saturday February 25 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan (though it happened on Sunday morning locally in Japan). The pay-per-view was super-sized with seven fights airing live during the broadcast. Including the first fight of the night between Issei Tamura and Tiequan Zhang that was originally aired on Facebook, all twelve fights ended up being broadcast either on FX or during the pay-per-view broadcast.

On RecapRadio Brent Todd and John Petit had given their predictions for the event. Even just going with the winners they thought would win, Todd went 2-5 and Petit went 4-3. The results were some of the most exciting and craziest in recent history.

Vaughan Lee submits Kid Yamamoto via Iron Forges Iron

The submission of the night award was easy to hand out as there was only one submission. Vaughan Lee defeated Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto by armbar late in the first round. The two each blasted the other with big punches with Yamamoto nearly finishing early in the round. But Lee was able to recover and after Yamamoto was hurt, Lee rushed and locked in a triangle. The submission looked deep, but Yamamoto wasn’t tapping. Lee switched to an armbar and that was all that was needed to earn the tap.

Five fights ended by either knockout or technical knockout making the decision for who would earn the $65,000 bonus difficult. The first fight of the night between Tamura and Zhang was a great start to the night as Tamura landed a vicious right that sent Zhang to la-la-land.

Still part of the preliminary fights, Takanori Gomi showed some of what made Gomi so popular as he was able to earn a technical knockout over Eiji Mitsuoka. In the second round while both fighters seemed extremely gassed, Gomi started to connect with his strikes. It wasn’t long before Mitsuoka wasn’t responding and Gomi just unloaded everything he had into punching Mitsuoka until the referee was forced to stop the fight.

Both Tim Boetsch and Mark Hunt had impressive knockouts in their bouts against Yushin Okami and Cheick Kongo respectively. Boetsch was losing his fight to Okami badly. Knowing he was down two rounds to none Boetsch came out in the third swinging. He staggered Okami with a straight punch. Boetsch smelled blood and swarmed with tricky uppercuts. The assault of uppercuts continued until Okami fell to the floor in a bad way and Boetsch landed two more before the ref stopped the fight.

Many felt that Hunt was going to be seriously outmatchedand outworked by Kongo. But that never happened. Early in the fight Hunt dropped Kongo but decided to let Kongo get right back up. The second time he wasn’t as nice as he swarmed Kongo and rained down punch after punch until Herb Dean was force to save Kongo from eating any more damage.

Anthony Pettis KO's Joe Lauzon - via Iron Forges Iron

With Boetsch’s come from behind knockout and Hunt’s impressive striking display it would take a special kind of knockout to earn the extra $65,000. And an impressive knockout did happen. Anthony Pettis and Joe Lauzon seemed happy to trade punches. Pettis lands a kick to the body on Lauzon but Lauzon continues to press forward. Pettis threw another kick, Lauzon went to block it low, but the kick sailed high and connected perfectly on Lauzon’s head and Lauzon was unconscious.

Frankie Edgar vs Ben Henderson - via Iron Forges Iron

The main event screamed Fight of the Night award even before the first punch was thrown. Frankie Edgar and Ben Henderson have been in several battles that were amazing and exciting. Edgar caught nearly every one of Henderson’s kicks and then proceeded to punch him in the face for even throwing a kick. But Henderson had more than just kicks at the ready as he blasted Edgar with straight punches that bloodied up Edgar quickly. The fight was a twenty-five minute back and forth battle that was extremely close. The judges had their work cut out for them but in the end they awarded the fight to Henderson crowing a new champ. Even though Edgar lost, he still pocketed an extra $65,000 for the performance as the fight was deemed the Fight of the Night.

Quick Results
Benson Henderson defeated Frankie Edgar via unanimous decision (49-46, 48-47, 49-46)
Ryan Bader defeated Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Mark Hunt defeated Cheick Kongo via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 2:11
Jake Shields defeated Yoshihiro Akiyama via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Tim Boetsch defeated Yushin Okami via TKO (punches) – Round 3, 0:54
Hatsu Hioki defeated Bart Palaszewski via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Anthony Pettis defeated Joe Lauzon via knockout (kick and punches) – Round 1, 1:21
Takanori Gomi defeated Eiji Mitsuoka via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 2:21
Vaughan Lee defeated Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto via submission (armbar) – Round 1, 4:29
Riki Fukuda defeated Steve Cantwell via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Chris Cariaso defeated Takeya Mizugaki via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
Issei Tamura defeated Tiequan Zhang via knockout (punch) – Round 2, 0:32