When the dust settled, UFC 139 may have been the best card the UFC has put on all year. The card was so good that it had two "Fight of the Nights," and it featured a main event that will be talked about for years.
UFC 139 took place at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California, and had a reported attendance of 13,173 for a gate of $1.286 million. Knockout of the Night went to bantamweight Michael McDonald who knocked out Alex Soto in 56 seconds. Submission of the night went to Urijah Faber for his guillotine choke on Brian Bowles.
Fight of the NIght was given to two fights. The main event between Dan Henderson and Shogun Rua and the co-main event between Wanderlei Silva and Cung Le both got the award. The bonus' were $70,000 each.
The card had something for every MMA fan. It had brutal knockouts, technical submissions and perhaps best of all, brawls from top to bottom. Fans watching the action on Spike were treated to five fights instead of the normal two because the two scheduled fights both ended inside of 90 seconds.
Urijah Faber put on what might have been the best performance of his career as he dominated Brian Bowles, dropping him multiple times before eventually finishing Bowles with a guillotine in the second round. Stephan Bonnar also put in a great performance over former ASU football player Kyle Kingsbury in getting a unanimous decision vitcory. And the "Axe Murderer" was triumphant over UFC newcomer Chung Le. It was Wanderlei Silva's first win since February 2010 and might have saved his job.
However the night was stolen by the two fighters in the main event. Dan Henderson and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua stole the show with their five round war that had some experts saying it was the best fight in UFC history. Both fighters were bloody and exhausted after 25 grueling minutes locked in the cage together.
Full results below:
Dan Henderson def Mauricio "Shogun" Rua via unanimous decision (48-47, 48-47, 48-47)
Wanderlei Silva def Cung Le via knockout (strikes) at Round 2, 4:49
Urijah Faber def Brian Bowles via submission (guillotine) at Round 2, 1:27
Marin Kampmann def Rick Story via split decision (28-29, 30-27, 29-28)
Stephan Bonnar def Kyle Kingsbury via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-25, 20-27)
Ryan Bader def Jason Brilz via knockout (strikes) at Round 1, 1:17
Michael McDonald def Alex Soto via knockout (stirkes) Round 1, 0:56
Chris Weidman def Tom Lawlor via submission (D'arce Choke) Round 1, 2:07
Gleison Tibau def Rafael Dos Anjos via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 30-27)
Miguel Torres def Nick Pace via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Seth Baczynski def Matt Brown via submission (guillotine) at Round 2, 0:42
Danny Castillo def Shamar Bailey via TKO (punches) at Round 1, 4:52