By Mark Gessner

UFC 128: Shogun vs Jones
Live on PPV from the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.

1. Mirko Cro Cop vs Brendan Schaub (Heavyweight Division)

Round One: 10-9 Schaub. The fight opened up with dirty boxing up against the cage. Schaub got the better of Cro Cop in the stand up exchanges before taking the fight to the ground and putting on a two minute ground and pound display.

Round Two: 9-8 Cro Cop. Schaub scored an early takedown but was unable to sustain his ground attack like he did to close out the opening round. Cro Cop had a point deducted due to up kicking Schaub in the head while he had a knee on the mat. Schaub then had a point deducted for striking Cro Cop in the back of the head. The round closed out with a good dirty boxing action up against the cage in the final minutes with Cro Cop having the edge. 

Round Three: Schaub was able to take Cro Cop to the ground again and displayed good wrestling ability for a former football player. Schaub was in control for majority of the round before connecting with a straight right hand that dropped Cro Cop. Schaub landed one more punch to the head of a rocked Cro Cop for good measure before referee Herb Dean could jump in and end the fight.

Official Decision: Brendan Schaub defeated Mirko Cro Cop via knockout at 3:44 of third round

Gessner's Glance: Brendan Schaub was awarded the Knockout of the Night fight bonus while Dana White indicated following the show that Cro Cop has fought his last fight with the UFC. Schaub looked impressive scoring takedowns almost at will against Cro Cop who is known for his good takedown defense. Coming into his fight at UFC 121, some questioned whether Schaub had the cardio to go for three rounds since he never had a fight go past the first. He has proven that he does with a unanimous decision victory over Gabriel Gonzaga and tonight going nearly fifteen minutes before knocking out Cro Cop.

2. Nate Marquardt vs Dan Miller (Middleweight Division)

Round One: Marquardt 10-9. Very closely contested opening round but Marquardt scored two more takedowns than Miller and spent the majority of the time on top of Miller. Marquardt closed out the round with a huge slam takedown in the final minute of the opening five minutes.

Round Two: Miller 10-9. Another very closely contested round. In the opening minute, Miller was able to catch Marquardt who was attempting a flying knee, but Miller took him to the ground. Miller had a good looking guillotine choke in the final half minute of the round to take the round on my card. Tied up at a round a piece.

Round Three: 10-9 Marquardt. Marquardt sprawled an early takedown attempt by Miller and was able to scramble to top position. He closed out the remainder of the fight displaying good ground and pound ability and not allowing Miller to lock in any submissions from the bottom. 29-28 Marquardt on my card.

Official Decision: Nate Marquardt defeated Dan Miller via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Gessner's Glance: After two very close opening rounds to the fight, Marquardt dominated Miller in the third showing the skill gap between the two. Miller took the fight on short notice due to Akiyama not being able to get out of Japan, and the drop off in talent levels between him and Miller was evident in the third round. Marquardt remains in the top ten of the middleweight division but does not gain anything from the decision victory nor did he losing any ground as he was never in any imminent danger of losing the fight. 

Jim Miller vs Kamal Shalorus (Lightweight Division)

Round One: Miller 10-9. Really close back and forth round and a very entertaining five minutes. Miller slight edge in stand up over Shalorus. While Shalorus threw more strikes, most of them did not find their mark. Miller connected with a higher percentage of his strikes.

Round Two: 10-9 Miller. Miller scored a takedown and took Shalorus' back. He locked in a body triangle with three minutes left in the round. Miller worked constantly for rear naked choke but could not cinch it in, so he mixed and landed shots to the head throughout the final three minutes of the middle round. 

Round Three: Miller was dodging Shalorus' punches and connecting shots of his own. Miller rocked Shalorus with a big left uppercut that caused him to bend down and left himself wide open to take a huge knee to the head from Miller. The knee dropped him and Miller pounced on him, pounding on Shalorus before the referee stepped in and ended the fight.

Official Decision: Jim Miller defeated Kamal Shalorus via TKO at 2:15 of the third round

Gessner's Glance: As a predicted in my preview for this show, the step up in competition for Shalorus proved to be too much for him. Miller is on an absolute tear right now and is proving why he should be in consideration for a UFC Lightweight Championship match. There's a log jam at the top with Maynard earning a rematch following the draw in January and Anthony Pettis still has to get his title shot to unify the UFC and WEC titles, assuming he defeats Clay Guida in June at The Ultimate Fighter Finale. 

4. Urijah Faber vs Eddie Wineland (Bantamweight Division)

Round One: Wineland 10-9. Along with not letting Faber score a takedown the entire round, Wineland scored a huge german suplex takedown at 2:25. Very competitive opening round with Wineland getting the slight edge.

Round Two: 10-9 Faber. Faber scored a trip takedown a minute and a half into the round and ground and pounded the rest of the round. Along with his striking, Faber mixed in a couple big ground busters. Big round for Faber tying him and Wineland up at a round a piece going into the third and final round.

Round Three: 10-9 Faber. Back and forth opening three minutes of standup between the two. Faber landed the biggest strike of the exchange with a lightning fast uppercut. Faber scored a double leg takedown with 1:20 left in the fight. He immediately hit another huge ground buster before closing out the round with elbows to sure up the round. Faber 29-28 on my card.

Urijah Faber defeated Eddie Wineland via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Gessner's Glance: I had picked this as the fight of the night, and at least on the main card, it lived up to the hype up until this point of the show. Wineland was impressive in the opening round but had no answer for Faber once the fight was taken to the ground. With his win, Faber appears to be the clear cut favorite for a UFC Bantamweight Championship fight against Dominick Cruz, whose only loss came at the hands of the California Kid, Urijah Faber. There's speculation that the two will coach the fourteenth season of The Ultimate Fighter, but we're still over half a year from taping beginning and still have the thirteenth season which has yet to air. 

5. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua (Champion) vs Jon "Bones" Jones for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship

Round One: 10-9 Jones. Dominant round by Jones. He took Shogun down only thirty seconds into the round and grounded and pounded for the remainder of the fight with his vicious elbow attacks. Following the horn, Shogun looked completely blown up, along with  looking the most vulnerable he has looked since his loss to Forrest Griffin in his UFC debut. Complete domination but Jones, not a 10-8 round but pretty damn close.

Round Two: 10-9 Jones. Awesome spinning back elbow against the cage early by Jones that connected. Jones was able to take Shogun to the ground after catching a leg kick attempt. He again continued to ground and pound Shogun to close out the round. Shogun looked to be out of gas after ten minutes. He hadn't fought in nearly a year and it absolutely showed.

Round Three: Jones continued to dominate the fight. He took Shogun down, landed elbows from side control, took his back and connect with a huge knee to the ribs. He let Shogun stand up, backed him up against the cage, threw a couple punches before landing a knee to the head that dropped Shogun and ended the fight.

Official Decision: Jon "Bones" Jones defeated Mauricio "Shogun" Rua via TKO at 2:37 of the third round to become the new UFC Light Heavyweight Champion

Gessner's Glance: Jones proved that he is in fact the real deal and at the age of twenty-three, he is the next big thing in mixed martial arts. In six weeks he out wrestled an All American wrestler and dominated the two rounds that Ryan Bader survived before tapping out and he defeated one the of the most legendary fighters in MMA history in Shogun Rua, dominating him from the word "go." Training partner Rashad Evans was brought into the octagon post fight and accepted a title match against Jones. Jones is on an absolute roll and there does not appear to be anyone in the sport who can stop him at 205 (more on that later).

Overall Show Thoughts: From top-to-bottom, this was a great card and a very entertaining show. You saw up-and-coming heavyweight Brendan Schaub hammer in the death knell in the UFC career of MMA legend Mirko Cro Cop with his third round Knockout of the Night. Dan Miller fought better than expected against a much more talented Nate Marquardt and had a very good two rounds before Nate's talent shined through in a dominant third round. Jim Miller continued his amazing win streak and is a force to be reckoned with at 155. And, the face of WEC won his debut fight with the UFC as Urijah Faber defeated Eddie Wineland, putting himself presumably next in line for a UFC Bantamweight Championship shot.

And in the main event, you saw the birth of a new era in the 205 weight class with Jon "Bones" Jones becoming the youngest champion in UFC history. Rashad Evans is next by proxy due to earning a title shot but getting injured. Based on his performances thus far in his career, an aging "Suga" Rashad should not be a problem for Bones Jones. Rampage could be an entertaining slugfest, but does not have the speed to match Jones. Machida is a counter striker that Jones would pick apart. Randy Couture is dropping to 205, but he couldn't beat a MMA rookie in Brock Lesnar and Jones is a much more well-rounded fighter than Lesnar was at the time and Couture is 3 years older. 

Following the main event, an interesting tweet came across my timeline from Diego Sanchez. "@danawhite - @Jonnybones vs Anderson Silva next???" Silva is currently in line to fight Georges St. Pierre assuming that GSP beats Jake Shields next month, which I think is almost a given. Following that fight and win, GSP is moving up to middleweight. Based on needing time to recover from the fight and put on a minimum of fifteen pounds to be competitive in the 185 division, GSP will probably need anywhere from six to ten months, maybe even an entire year.

Yushin Okami is next in line for a shot at the UFC Middleweight Championship and UFC could have him face and most likely get dominated by Silva. Or you have Anderson Silva, who walks around at over 200 pounds and has fought at light heavyweight before face the new phenom, Jon Jones. Since Sanchez's tweet, numerous other people on twitter are clamoring to see Spider vs Bones. Only time will tell if that fight will come to fruition. 

Thank you all very much for clicking the link that brought you to my coverage of UFC 128: Shogun vs Jones. If you have any thoughts, questions, comments, or critiques, feel free to email me at kliq4life28@gmail.com or tweet me at Twitter.com/MarkGessner. I'll be back next weekend with coverage of Ultimate Fight Night 24, headlined by Lil' Nog vs Phil Davis.

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