Well that sucked. There isn’t really any way to defend that card. Even Dana White said he’s embarrassed by it, mostly by the main event but the whole pay-per-view after the first two bouts was just awful.

Grove Vs. Muñoz

“Da Spyder” looked very strong in the first round catching “The Filipino Wrecking Machine” early with an uppercut then got close to finishing the fight a couple times with a couple of chokes. In the second, Muñoz’s strength took over as he just annihilated Grove with his ground and pound like some sort of Filipino wrecking machine (Oh! Totally get the nickname now). It looked like the ref may have stopped this one a bit early but then seeing how long it took Grove to get back on his feet, good call.

This gets 2.5 Ariannys out of 3 for the solid comeback by Muñoz and a brutal TKO.

Etim Vs. dos Anjos

This was the only other exciting fight on the card. It didn’t have the frantic pace of the first fight but had a great display of Jiu-Jitsu. dos Anjos shot early and got caught in a guillotine but stayed calm and eventually got out. The end came late in the second when dos Anjos caught Etim in an armbar that for a second looked like Etim was gonna get out of but dos Anjos just cranked on it and it was done (also Etim’s arms were probably gassed from hanging on to the guillotine in the first for so long).

2.5 Ariannys out of 3 for a great back and forth exchange and a down to the wire submission finish.

Hughes Vs. Gracie

This is where everything went downhill. Hughes and Gracie just circled each other for two and a half rounds throwing nothing but leg kicks until Gracie’s left leg gave out. Hughes let him back up a couple times then went after him with a barrage of half-assed punches. The ref stopped it cause Renzo couldn’t stand anymore. Matt Hughes’ standup is as about as exciting as watching the Devils play with a lead in the third period and Gracie’s isn’t much better. Not to say that they aren’t exciting fighters but they both chose to use the least exciting part of their games to try and put one in the win column. And that’s not the last time that happens on this pay-per-view.

1 Arianny out of 3 and only that high cause at least there was a finish.

Penn Vs. Edgar- Lightweight Title

This was snooze fest part 2, only longer cause it was a title fight. Once again, two fighters playing it safe and some say smart but I disagree and I’ll get to that later. There was a lot of circling, punches thrown here and there, a takedown in the 5th, and a “WHA?!” moment at the end. There really wasn’t much BJ Penn did to win this fight, but not a lot Frankie Edgar did either. In baseball, tie goes to the runner and in fighting close goes to the champion. We saw it last October at UFC 104: Machida Vs. Shogun and we saw it in 1999 at MSG with Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield. A great overly tanned, feathered robe wearing man once said, “To be the man, you gotta beat the man!” Frankie Edgar is the champion right now but he’s not the man, he’s just wearing his belt.

1 Arianny out of 5 and only that high because of the “WHA?!” moment at the end.

Silva Vs. Maia – Middleweight Title

Our snooze fest trilogy concludes with “The Return of the Bored Champion!” If you’ve seen pictures of Demian Maia’s face after the fight, you’d think he was either in an all-out brawl or that Anderson really put a beating on his. You’d be wrong and probably didn’t watch this fight. There were a couple kicks and punches here and there (surprisingly enough to Break Maia’s nose and swell shut his left eye), a lot of circling, and A LOT of taunting by Silva. Joe Rogan had the line of the night when he said he wished he spoke Portuguese. Silva played it safe; he didn’t really engage much, just enough to win. Some call it smart cause he kept his belt and moved on, but this is three title defenses in a row from Anderson that were just unwatchable. There’s this great disconnect sometimes with athletes (no matter what sport) in what they’re being paid to do. It’s not to win, it’s to entertain. People pay a lot of money to see these fights (and when you see how much the tickets for UFC 115 in Vancouver are, you’ll know what I mean by a lot) and they’re paying to be entertained, not to watch someone just get the “W”. If he keeps winning like this, the UFC isn’t gonna see a very high by-rate for pay-per-views he headlines and he’s not gonna see the cheques he used to and how smart do you think that is?

It has to be over for Anderson at Middleweight. Nobody at middleweight really thinks they can beat him, no one wants to engage, and he’s never been an offensive minded striker, just a very calculated counter-striker. And what makes it worse is that he’s the champion and when you’re champion, you don’t need to beat anyone they need to beat you. Everyone who’s an MMA fan needs to get on their knees and pray to whatever deity they believe in that Machida gets stomped by Shogun next month cause until that belt is out of Machida’s grasp, Anderson isn’t going after the Light Heavyweight strap.

½ an Arianny out of 5 for being the third consecutive title dud-fense for Anderson.

UFC 112 definitely wasn’t worth the price of admission or all the effort I (and many others) went through not to hear the results before the show. Let’s hope Stikeforce can do better than this next week.