Ben Henderson (white shorts) established himself as the first truly undisputed king of the lightweight division since BJ Penn with a lopsided drumming of Nate Diaz (black trunks). (Photo courtesy of Zuffa, LLC.)
As has been the case every time the UFC has hit the network airwaves, UFC on FOX 5 delivered in a fairly big way. While the discussion of who benefited more, FOX or the UFC, has been a bone of contention as of late, the fans remain a clear winner when the world’s premier MMA organization hits the biggest stage in all of sports. This time, the UFC delivered a card with the kind of depth that is reminiscent of the days when they held six to ten cards a year. “Quick” Mike Swick (15-5) opened the card against “The Immortal” Matt Brown (16-11) but was quickly found to be the less prepared fighter as Brown controlled the ground battle in the first and scored the KO in the second. “Ares” Rory MacDonald (14-1) stepped off in “The Prodigy” BJ Penn’s (16-9-2) butt though he may have stepped in it so to speak with his less than sportsmanlike behavior. “The Mauler” Alexander Gustafsson (15-1) was the clear winner over “Shogun” Mauricio Rua (21-7), showing new depth in his skill set with a handful of clean takedowns, and in the main event, “Smooth” Benson Henderson (18-2) left little doubt as to who reigns over the lightweight division by utterly dominating Nate Diaz (16-8) for five rounds. However, not every winner wins and not every loser loses in the big scheme of things so The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is here to sort it out.
