By Zach Arnold

It was a picture-perfect ending to a fight for UFC President Dana White. After a month of non-stop hype about Anderson Silva being the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, Silva brought the goods in front of a capacity crowd at The Pearl at The Palms in Las Vegas on the 19th. Silva faced 205-pound midcard James Irvin and destroyed him by knockout in 61 seconds in the main event of UFC’s three-hour long Spike TV broadcast.

The fight itself was vintage UFC-era Anderson Silva. He managed to grab a hold onto Irvin’s right leg after a kick attempt and then proceeded to knock Irvin down with a straight right punch. Silva added a few more shots for good measure, but it was very clear that Irvin was done like dinner after the straight right punch. On a card that produced some relatively disappointing efforts, Silva showed why he is as dangerous at 205 pounds as he is at 185 pounds.

The only shot Irvin had of realistically winning the fight was to by minimizing as much risk as possible, meaning taking the fight to the ground and somehow managing a knockout that way. Instead, Irvin did what he said he was going to do and kept the fight standing up. Big mistake.

He’s lucky that he didn’t get carted off on a stretcher.

Interestingly enough, Anderson Silva did get a very good reaction from the fans in attendance. Celebrities in attendance included Mandy Moore, Usher, and Paul Pierce of the Boston Celtics. Silva’s highlight knockout was a good way to send the fans home on a night that was relatively lackluster by UFC standards.

There were a couple of lowlights and disappointments on the card, and one of those disappointing moments included the debut of Brandon Vera at Light Heavyweight (205 pounds). If you wanted a crystal clear contrast of two men making their debuts at 205 pounds, it was Vera & Silva. Silva made the transition up from 185 to 205 pounds with relative ease, while Vera slogged his way down to 205 pounds and looked relatively weak.

Vera faced IFL veteran Reese Andy, who UFC did a very good job of hyping up two hours before the fight took place. In fact, they did a better job with only a few minutes of promotional work in hyping up Andy than the IFL ever did for that guy’s career. Unfortunately, Andy showed very little offense in the match against Vera. Vera, who was often smallish as a heavyweight, looked like a giant at Light Heavyweight against Andy. However, that was about as intimidating as Vera got throughout the three round fight. The fans were visibly frustrated with what they saw as a lackluster performance. At the start of round three, UFC TV announcers Mike Goldberg & Joe Rogan started lighting into Vera for not having a more exciting fight. After ripping on Vera, Rogan started bringing up possible reasons/excuses as to why Vera didn’t bring his A-game to the fight. Was it a result of being dehydrated from weight-cutting? UFC clearly wants to push Vera as a serious, marketable 205-pounder. Instead, it was another frustrating night for both UFC officials and Vera himself. He may have won the fight, but lost credibility in the long-run.

Make no mistake about it - Brandon Vera is a tough fighter and at 205 pounds, he could cause a lot of problems for various opponents due to his size. However, he simply looked awful compared to what Silva did in the main event.

In heavyweight action, Cain Velasquez dismantled Jake O’Brien in short order. O’Brien has often been mockingly named ‘the human blanket’ because he smothers his opponents and doesn’t do anything else in fights. Well, the irony was thick and on display as Velasquez not only out-wrestled O’Brien, he destroyed him on the ground. Velasquez took him down, got side position, and must have landed about 100 punches right to the face before the referee stopped the fight. Velasquez sent a clear message that he is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the heavyweight division.

The biggest controversy of the night involved Welterweights Kevin Burns and Anthony “Rumble” Johnson. Johnson is quickly becoming a fan favorite due to his explosive, crowd-pleasing stand-up fight style. He has a couple of highlight reel knockouts already. With that stated, Johnson was facing a touted BJJ practitioner in Burns who had previously submitted Roan Carneiro. Burns, shockingly, decided to fight a stand-up war against Johnson. During the early stages of the fight, referee Steve Mazzagatti warned Burns about poking Johnson in the eyes with his fingers. The theme of the fight saw Johnson repeatedly take Burns down but not be able to do anything with position once on the mat.

With about 90 seconds left in the fight, Burns caught Johnson with a mean eye-poke and Johnson dropped down to the canvas. He was in obvious pain, and TV replays showed exactly why. Burns somehow managed to his fingers deep into Johnson’s eye socket and caused damage to the fighter. Inexplicably, Mazzagatti stopped the contest and award the bout to Burns by TKO. This infurirated the fans in attendance, as they started raining down heel-type boos on Burns and were vividly angry about what had happened. Burns claimed after the fight that the reason he strikes with his left hand open is because he’s broken that hand three times in a time-span of 16 months. Therefore, he can’t close his fist. Undoubtedly, the ruling by Mazzagatti to give Burns the TKO win will be reviewed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. It would seem that a re-match between Burns and Johnson is in order, although the fight they had tonight was not all that exciting.

TUF alumni members CB Dollaway and Jesse Taylor faced each other in a fight where Dollaway clearly proved he was the better fighter. There was a curious moment during the fight when Dollaway hit Taylor with a PRIDE-style knee to the head while Taylor was still on his knees. This clearly rocked Taylor, who never fully recovered. Dollaway applied a hold that he calls the ‘Peruvian Necktie’ on Taylor, which is essentially wrapping his right leg around the neck of Taylor and pushing down to apply pressure while using the left leg as a hook around Taylor’s body. It’s a strange maneuever, but it clearly worked.

Main card results:

Light Heavyweights (205 pounds): Anderson Silva def. James Irvin, R1 1:01 KO
Light Heavyweights (205 pounds): Brandon Vera def. Reese Andy, after 3R by unanimous decision
Lightweights (155 pounds): Frankie Edgar def. Hermes Franca, after 3R by unanimous decision
Heavyweights (265 pounds): Cain Velasquez def. Jake O’Brien, R1 2:02 TKO
Welterweights (170 pounds): Kevin Burns def. Anthony Johnson, R3 3:35 TKO
Middleweights (185 pounds): CB Dollaway def. Jesse Taylor, R1 3:58 submission