UFC 168 was one of the biggest cards of the year, delivering on all fronts in terms of action and excitement.
Once again, UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey proved she’s a cut above the rest, while UFC middleweight titleholder Chris Weidman once again bested Anderson Silva.
However, “The All-American’s” first successful title defense left more questions than when he won the belt in July.
There was plenty more action and excitement on the 11-fight card, so let’s check out who the biggest winners and losers were from the UFC’s annual end of year pay-per-view event.
BIGGEST WINNER
Chris Weidman – While some doubters are still going to again attribute the victory to luck, the bottom line is Christ Weidman has now defeated all-time great Anderson Silva in consecutive bouts.
Certainly, the rematch ended under unfortunate circumstances with Silva breaking his ankle on Weidman’s knee. Still, it is impossible to ignore that Weidman was again controlling the action on the feet and on the ground.
Weidman vs. Vitor Belfort should be a great fight, here’s hoping that the UFC makes the right decision and books the fight in America, though.
WINNER
Ronda Rousey – This just in: trying to grapple with the “Rowdy” one is a bad idea. The former Olympic bronze medalist is now 8-0 as a professional mixed martial artist, winning all of her bouts by armbar.
She faces off with a fellow Olympian in Sara McMann at UFC 170 in February, which has potential to be the most competitive bout of her career.
WINNER
Travis Browne – Once again, the versatile striking of Browne gets him past a top contender with ease.
The Greg Jackson’s MMA product finished off distinguished fight veteran Josh Barnett with his signature standing elbows just a minute into the matchup. A title eliminator bout with Fabricio Werdum sounds like an excellent idea.
WINNER
Dustin Poirier – Looks like “The Diamond” takes it personally when an opponent misses weight.
After Diego Brandao weighed in a whopping eight pounds over the featherweight limit on Friday, Poirier made an example out of the former Ultimate Fighter winner on Saturday, outstriking him before finishing him with punches at the tail end of round 1.
BIGGEST LOSER
Anderson Silva – What a way to lose … hard to believe a leg could break like that. In fairness, Silva had limited offense in the opening frame and was losing the fight at the time of the brutal injury.
Silva has no suffered back-to-back losses for the first time in his career and will be close to 40 years old by the time he is fully recovered from his broken left tibia and fibula.
“The Spider” needs to do the right thing and hang the gloves up for good, for the sake of his phenomenal legacy.
LOSER
Miesha Tate – Two title fights with Ronda Rousey, two losses via an armbar.
“Cupcake” deserves some credit though: she took the champ to the third round, a feat that previously seemed impossible, and showed tremendous improvements in her standup and ground game.
Hard to say where Tate goes next, but it seems safe to say she is a good four, maybe even five, wins away from another shot at championship gold.
LOSER
Josh Barnett – “The Warmaster” was arguably just one victory away from a title shot, but Travis Browne had other plans.
The highly touted grappler never had a chance to take the action to the mat as Browne blasted him with vicious elbows to the temple as he went for a takedown. Barnett never had a chance. Seems pretty unlikely he has another title run left in him at this point.
LOSER
Diego Brandao – Come in ridiculously overweight, with a ridiculous excuse to boot, then get TKO’ed in the first round of the actual fight.
A car accident two weeks ago didn’t allow you to train properly at the end of camp ... yet the athletic commission still licensed you to fight. Moving right along then.