In what could be only described as the worst performance of Rua’s career - a performance that was worse even than his fight with Forrest Griffin - the 27-year-old Brazilian defeated Mark Coleman via TKO at 4:36 of the third round in a disappointing semi-main event.

“I long time no fight… I come back, and now 100 percent,”he said in broken english following the fight, despite his assertion that he is back 100 percent, it is hard to believe that the fighter that once dominated Pride and has not competed in over a year, is back in top form.

In the first Coleman stormed out and took the fight right to the ground off a deep leg kick by Rua and looked strong landing a couple of hard shots to the face of the BJJ black belt on the mat. From there it was all “Shogun” who got to his feet and controlled the standup with leg kicks and knee’s that Coleman had no defense for. The elder statesman, while a long-time compeitor in the sport looked every bit his 44 years and appeared to gas out after only a minute in the first round.

Action slowed considerably in the second stanza and although Rua had an Omaplata as the round came to a close, he too was gassed out completely and didn’t have enough to finish his equally gassed opponent as the action slowed to a crawl as both fighters looked like they were 44. Neither competitor asserted themselves in a round that may go down as the worst in the entire card in a performance that was less than advertised considering the heavy promotion put into the bout with the storylines of Rua's injury leading into the contest.

In the third, Coleman came back, getting the takedown and working on a slow ground-and-pound assault, but could not keep the fight there long enough to secure the fight when he needed it most. The fight went back to the feet and this time Shogun tee’d off with an uppercut and left hook to send the referee in to stop the bout and put and end to a miserable contest.

Coleman made no excuses following the fight dismissing the weight cut to 205 as the reason for his lack of conditioning, “I am a wrestler I just did it,” he said. He didn’t do a whole lot more, and neither did Rua in what must surely be a disapointing performance for the UFC brass who once had high hopes for the former Pride middleweight Champion.

Rousimar Palhares was impressive, and unimpressive in the same bout as he dominated Jeremy Horn at times and showed limited conditioning at times, a problem that has reared it’s ugly head in both of his 3-round fights.

As expected it didn’t take long for Palhares to get it to the ground, take the back, and land punches from the back over an overwhelmed Jeremy Horn who played defense for almost the full 15 minutes of the lopsided bout. Despite the early domination, the experience of Horn carried him through some tough spots that would have seen most - if not all - other fighters succumb to the formidable ground assault of BJJ black belt Rousimar Palhares.

Horn found an opportunity in the middle of the second stanza getting the mount over what appeared to be a gassed Palhares, but he was unable to turn the tide and capitalize on his lone opportunity and it would cost him as Palhares was able to get the takedown when he needed to, and ride out the rest of the fight to take the decision.

Denis Kang vs. Alan Belcher

All three rounds were fought on the feet with both fighters trading hands for three hard fought rounds, and when it was all said and done, both faces bore the signs of war with their left eyes closed and blood trickling from their faces. While it was a close fight in the first two rounds, Davis’s body kicks appeared to slow Lytle down as Davis came on in the third while Lytle slowed, and it proved to be the difference in a close but entertaining back-and-forth affair. The split decision was well earned by Davis, and I expect to see a rematch in will go down as an early candidate for fight of the  year.

John Hathaway swarmed his opponent Tom Egan from the opening bell, getting the fight to the ground at will and using control to soften his opponent, and eventually elbow him into submission to get the victory at 4:36 of the first round via TKO.