All the favorites win at UFC 87

Main card results:

UFC Welterweight Title match: Georges St. Pierre def. Jon Fitch after 5R by unanimous decision
Heavyweights: Brock Lesnar def. Heath Herring after 3R by unanimous decision
Lightweights: Robert Emerson def. Manny Gamburyan in R1 0′12 by KO
Lightweights: Kenny Florian def. Roger Huerta after 3R by unanimous decision
Welterweights: Demian Maia def. Jason MacDonald in R3 2′44 by submission
Welterweights: Tamdan McCrory def. Luke Cummo after 3R by unanimous decision
Heavyweights: Cheick Kongo def. Dan Evensen in R1 4′55 by TKO

While the UFC 87 fight card delivered the goods in terms of MMA action, the lone highlight from the show that has your typical UFC fan popping is Georges St. Pierre accepting BJ Penn’s challenge to fight for the Welterweight title. Penn, UFC’s 155-pound Lightweight champion, will easily be the toughest test to date for St. Pierre, who won in relatively easy fashion over Jon Fitch in the main event of last Saturday night’s show in Minneapolis at the Target Center.

Penn has been talking up a storm about facing St. Pierre and even had a face-to-face meeting with Dana White to ask for the fight. UFC now has two mega-money matches on the table for their year-end event in December, with Chuck Liddell vs. Forrest Griffin and BJ Penn vs. Georges St. Pierre. If Liddell can hold his end of the bargain and beat Rashad Evans in September, then there’s no question that we will see a fight for the Light Heavyweight title down the road in quick fashion.

St. Pierre dominated Fitch at UFC 87 and made it look easy, which is a very hard feat to do considering that Fitch is an excellent, well-rounded fighter. On paper, this match looked good and certainly had to be booked. However, it lacked any sort of suspense or emotion that most typical UFC high-level main event fights have. Yes, the Minneapolis crowd was very good and should be commended for the way they popped for the fighters, but the reality is that few people at home or on the Internet cared much about Jon Fitch fighting. Ultimately, stars sell and despite UFC’s best attempts at putting over Fitch as a serious threat to GSP, few people were really buying into the hype.

Brock Lesnar was, in many ways, the antithesis of Jon Fitch on this fight card. Lesnar was super-over and knew exactly what buttons to push to draw a reaction from the crowd. Unlike Fitch, who is a very polished fight out of the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, Lesnar is still a very raw talent training out of the Minnesota Martial Arts Academy. Lesnar dominated and manhandled veteran Heath Herring, who has simply looked awful in UFC. The Heath Herring that many fans saw in PRIDE is not the Heath Herring that has shown up for the most part in the Octagon. Yes, Herring did give Nogueira fits last year, but that’s the only real UFC highlight you could possibly point to for the Texas Crazy Horse. The irony of this fight is that Herring is a big pro-wrestling fan and he got manhandled by an ex-WWE star. Lesnar may have won in semi-boring fashion, but he simply overpowered and outmatched Herring every step of the way. The natural match for Lesnar next in the heavyweight division is against Cheick Kongo, but will Kongo accept the fight? Kongo won’t have the size advantage on Lesnar unlike his past fight against Mirko Cro Cop, and it’s the classic kickboxer vs. wrestler match-up that will present a world of problems for Mr. Kongo. It’s clear that Lesnar has a lot of raw talent, but the big question everyone is asking now is how many fights does this guy need before he can seriously challenge for the UFC Heavyweight title.

Kenny Florian, who has been trying to reinvent himself throughout his UFC career, once again showed why he is one of the smartest fighters in the company. Florian tactically dominated a very aggressive Roger Huerta, who provided good defensive skills but little else against Florian. There has been a lot of complaining online about Florian using a Lyoto Machida-style fight plan, but the fact is that Florian had to use it to beat someone as aggressive and explosive as Huerta. Florian was the favorite going into the fight and he did not disappoint at all. As for Huerta, the loss to Florian capped off probably the worst week of his professional life in MMA. UFC management was reportedly unahppy with comments Huerta made in Fight! Magazine about how much he has been getting paid and how UFC has marketed him. There has long been a debate online about UFC’s marketing of Huerta and whether or not the guy is overrated. Then there is another camp that believes UFC has dropped the ball in terms of making a major advance in the Mexican fight scene by not pushing Huerta hard enough. The counter to that, as Sherdog writer Jordan Breen points out, is that Zuffa has to be careful in pushing guys too hard or else the public will perceive such fighters as company men and nothing more. With Huerta losing to Florian at UFC 87, Miguel Torres is now Zuffa’s most credible Latin fighter in terms of promise — and he’s not even in UFC, he’s in WEC.