Vitor Belfort returned to the UFC with a bang last night when he KO'd former Middleweight champion Rich Franklin in the very first round. The fight began with both fighters feeling each other out and trying to time each other, just over 3 minutes into the fight however Vitor clipped Franklin and dropped the American before following up with a flurry of strikes on the ground to get the win.Junior Dos Santos proved to everyone that he is a force to be reckoned with in the heavyweight division as he earned a TKO over Mirko Cro Cop. Junior had Cro Cop hurt in the first round but was unable to finish the Croation, Mirko did well to hold on & ended up cutting Dos Santos over both eyes by the end of the round. Round 2 picked up where the first left off as Dos Santos worked angles and landed numerous strikes. In round 3 Dos Santos started to pick up the pace and landed several knees to the body from the clinch before landing a punch that caused Mirko to verbally submit due to problems with his eye sight.
Paul Daley pulled off a big upset in his UFC debut, scoring a TKO victory over Martin Kampmann. Kampmann came out looking to exchange strikes with the Brit but soon found himself looking for a takedown when he tasted Daley's power, however Paul was able to shrug off the takedown attempts and started landing some big shots that had Kampmann out on his feet, forcing the referee to step in and stop the fight in the very first round.
Josh Koscheck got back to winning ways as he put on an impressive showing to KO Frank Trigg in the first round. Both fighters came out looking to trade strikes but it was Koscheck who landed the more powerful shots as he clipped Trigg forcing him to slump against the fence where Josh then threw a few more unanswered punches before the stoppage.
Tyson Griffin showed that he can finish fights when he KO'd tough Brazilian Hermes Franca in round 2. Griffin showed some good technical striking and comfortably took the first round, in the second, Hermes came out looking to throw bombs but Tyson was able to withstand Franca's early storm before landing a big right hand to drop Hermes & then followed him to the ground to put Franca out.
Efrain Escudero scored the first KO victory of his career when he landed a huge punch to put Cole Miller out in the first round.
Jim Miller defeated Steve Lopez via TKO when Lopez dislocated his shoulder in the 2nd round.
Rafael Dos Anjos earned a unanimous decision victory over Rob Emerson after controlling the stand-up action with some vicious leg kicks and scoring some takedowns in the later rounds to seal the victory.
Rick Story was victorious over Brian Foster, securing an arm triangle choke in the 2nd round.
Tomasz Drwal forced Drew McFedries to tap out in the 2nd round via rear naked choke.
