FanNation - The Republic of Sport

The old adage anything can happen in a fight certainly held true in the inaugural UFC event in Canada. The main card bouts produced an array of excitement and craziness so it only makes sense that the numbers should do the same, so without further ado...

228 In the first main card fight Mac Danzig and Mark Bocek battled back and forth in rounds one and two. Bocek got the best of Danzig early, but Danzig turned it around and then split Bocek's left eye badly in the third round. So badly that with (2:28) remaining referee Yves Lavigne stopped the fight so the Doc could check it. He let it go, but the beleaguered Bocek didn't have much in the tank and only 1:16 later, or at 3:48 of round three Danzig sunk in a rear naked choke to end the fight.

4 After the victory Danzig thanked the crowd and told them that he had now fought in Canada (4) times and he loves it. He also said his girlfriend was Canadian then asked the fans to give him some love and they did...not literally.

755 Reach (75.5) of new middleweight Michael Bisping. His opponent Charles McCarthy has a 71 inch reach but it almost didn't matter when he came close to ending the fight with an armbar. The lean Bisping stayed calm though, got out of the attempt, and then used a little bit of his reach and a lot of his knees to TKO McCarthy.

151 Michael Bisping's record (15-1) after he stopped Charles McCarthy. The two talked a lot of trash before the fight, but after both were all class. Bisping said, "It's the fight business, I don't take it personally. I hope Charles is alright and we can have a drink later."

13 Record (1-3) of Kalib Starnes in his last four fights and the loss at UFC 83 might've sunk him for good. Prior to the fight I was duped beyond belief when I reported that no doubt Starnes would leave it all in the cage because Starnes previously said, "You lose two, three matches in a row and you might not be back. So you've got to keep winning; that's what this is all about." Yet in this bout Starnes didn't even attempt to fight, so much so that...

24 One of the three judges in the Quarry/Starnes bout scored all three rounds 10-8 for a total of only (24) points compiled by Starnes. This has to be some kind of record and it's hard to even dispute it because Starnes spent most of the fight inexplicably running from Quarry. The victory pushed Quarry's record to 10-2 and put him squarely in the mix at 185.

187 Travis Lutter's first weight (187) lbs when he missed weight for his last fight against Anderson Silva. Doesn't this make his entrance song against Rich Franklin just a tad ironic...Nickelback's I wanna be a rock star...I mean come on...we'll all stay skinny cause we just won't eat...

301 Time (3:01) of round two when Rich Franklin stopped a completely gassed Travis Lutter. The win pushed Franklin to 23-3 and dropped Lutter to 9-5, but Lutter almost finished the fight with a slick armbar. Franklin used a slicker counter though to escape and eventually finish the fight.

945 Time (9:45) when St. Pierre righted his second loss. He'd previously stopped Matt Hughes twice and now made good on redemption against Matt Serra. GSP dominated Serra throughout, threw him to the ground, bullied him, tired him out, and eventually stopped it with a barrage of knees at 4:45 of round two.

162 Record (16-2) of St. Pierre after he stopped Serra. Even though the two exchanged heated words before the bout, afterward they were all class. Serra congratulated St. Pierre and GSP asked the crowd not to do anything to him later, man rough crowd, then when asked what was next Serra said, "Next I gotta take my wife on vacation."

There you have the main card. To read a tribute to the number one (UFC 83 produced a lot of them), or the results of the preliminary bout, check out my blog Sports by the Numbers MMA