By CHRISTOS POLYDOROU
MMANEWS.COM Staff Writer

After a highly exciting main event just a week before, UFC delivered yet again in highly entertaining fashion with a jam-packed fight card that has arguably been one of the best in recent MMA history. From impressive knockouts to unexpected submissions and back-and-forth battles, UFC 132: Cruz vs. Faber surely had every MMA fan on the edge of their seat.

In the event’s first fight, Carlos Condit put on a stellar performance once again as he took out in impressive and cut-throat fashion the previously undefeated Dong Hyun Kim. Condit, a former WEC champion who is undeniably one of the world’s top welterweights to-date and a future contender for the UFC title, took the fight to the Korean top prospect, hurt him with a gigantic flying knee to the face and ended the battle with heavy punches delivered to a stunned Kim’ s face. The “Natural Born Killer”, scoring his fourth straight win since September 16, 2009, pleaded yet again a strong case for a shot at the welterweight title. As the welterweight king St. Pierre is scheduled to take on Nick Diaz later this year, Condit would have to wait for a possible title shot sometime next year. Though Condit has by far earned his dues, it would surely also be interesting to see his exceptional skill-set be pitted against Rick Story in a number-one-contender elimination fight or perhaps against Martin Kampmann in a rematch to avenge his only loss in the UFC.

Condit was not the only title-contender to put on a show inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, as the always entertaining Melvin Guillard pounded his way to another victory, beating Shane Roller by knockout in Round 1. It is surely confounding that after back to back impressive victories Guillard would be downgraded to preliminary card action, but the “Young Assassin” seemed to not be bothered by the fact as he did what he does best and delivered accurate strikes in lightning fast fashion to his opponent’s face. Melvin is, as I would argue, at the top of the top-contender list in a division that is astoundingly deep with great fighters. As the lightweight champ Frankie Edgar is still set to sometime take on Gray Maynard in their third collision, it would be interesting to see Guillard’s fast speed going up against Clay Guida’s unyielding and exhausting fast-paced style for the spot of sole contender. Dennis Siver, another UFC lightweight contender, also managed to walk away with a unanimous decision against Matt Wiman, in a back and forth battle that seemed to be going against the German’s way. Though victorious, Siver did not seem convincing with his performance that he is ready for a title shot.

Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg said that Tito Ortiz fights best when his back is pinned against the wall and when it was do or die time for the UFC veteran he surely fought like the Tito Ortiz of old. Taking on one of the Light-heavyweight Division’s youngest and strongest top-prospects, Ortiz fought not only for his legacy but also for his livelihood as the UFC’s President Dana White had proclaimed that this would be Ortiz’s last fight in the Octagon should he lose against Ryan Bader. Ortiz came in determined and well-prepared, dropping the young powerhouse with a heavy right hand and subsequently choking him to a submission as he won his first fight in the last five years with a guillotine choke in Round 1. Tito screamed to the cameras that he is back after executing his trademark post-win bury-the-dead-body gimmick and confidently raised his hand in victory, assertively saving his fight career for the time being. As to whether Ortiz still has much more fight in him remains to be seen in the near future. Who knows, maybe his win will ignite yet another Liddell vs. Ortiz spark in Dana’s mind.

A few weeks back I stated that if Silva and Leben decided to pull the trigger on each other, it would give the fans a knockout to remember and when the two fireplugs collided in 27 seconds of head to head dogfight, Leben was left standing victorious and alone over the ruined body of the legendary Wanderlei Silva. The two middleweight pit-bulls threw vicious hay-makers at each other, Silva scoring first but getting caught in the process by Leben’s otherworldly power. As the “Axe Murderer” got rocked by Leben’s strong hook, he was drawn into a clinch where the “Crippler” delivered uppercuts from hell to the Brazilian’s jaw to end the fight in devastating fashion. It surely wasn’t a matter of technique, stamina or game-planning as the only strategy for both fighters was to stand toe to toe and may the best landed punch and toughest chin win. Silva’s chin lost the battle which again brings up questions as to how much the Brazilian’s body has left to give after such tremendous punishment it has undergone throughout his career. Dana White stated during post-fight interviews that perhaps it is time for the once prolific middleweight to call it quits: "I think it's one of those ones where I'm going to have to sit down and talk to him, kind of Chuck Liddell him into it," White stated. "The guy has nothing left to prove. He's a warrior. People love him all over the world.” Leben on the other hand, goes back to his winning ways rebounding from a hard TKO loss to Brian Stann to end what had been a three-fight winning streak.