Brock Lesnar’s meteoric rise to prominence in MMA has certainly been impressive, but his win over Shane Carwin at UFC 116 is far and away his most awe-inspiring performance to date. Many critics, like myself, saw Lesnar’s career to this point one of favorable match-ups. Carwin was a different story all together, a skilled wrestler with incredible punching power. The fight seemed to be a toss up on paper. Lesnar’s ability to weather an early storm, one that has put many fighters before him out, demonstrated his toughness and endurance. Better still, Lesnar turned heads by locking on a textbook arm triangle. Even Rogan and Goldberg seemed as caught off guard as Carwin by the telegraphed submission. All credit to Lesnar for demonstrating his resilience and an evolving skill-set. Potential challengers for the top heavyweight in the world now have two more qualities to keep them up at night. His performance seems to be dividing the masses though. Some think this is a sign that the monster might just be unbeatable while others saw signs of his eventual demise in round one. Either way, one more win for Brock and one more chapter in MMA’s most profitable story.

Brock was not the only one to turn heads with a come from behind win. Chris Leben notched the biggest win of his career as he locked down a submission on Akyama in the closing seconds of what certainly would have been a decision victory for Sexyama. One got a funny feeling watching that fight that Leben was going to make something happen. Much like the feeling the first Scott Smith vs Chung Le fight brought as the third round closed and Smith seemed all but out on his feet before shocking the world. I for one had given up on Leben just seconds before, thinking the position would be enough for Akyama to grind out a win, taking nothing away from an extremely game Leben – silly me. Chris Leben has earned himself a real break this time around but the UFC would be smart to get him back in the cage in a reasonable amount of time to capitalize on the momentum both in the cage and in the press. Akyama didn’t come out of this a total loser, demonstrating some toughness that American fans were yet to really see in him. However he isn’t storming the UFC castle like many thought he could.

More than anything UFC 116 as a whole demonstrated that UFC matchmaker Joe Silva and anyone else with any say in the matter are on fire as of late. Excitement abound as fights are getting very competitive in the UFC these days. Matt Brown and Chris Lytle lit up the cage with their scrap before Lytle duplicated their first encounter by submitting The Immortal. Both fighters seem to be perennial mid-tier drifters but rarely disappoint in the cage. Just when you think Stephan Bonnar’s UFC career is ending before your eyes, he refuses to die. The man is as tough as they come and showed a lot of heart by swinging with Soszynski till one of them could finally finish the other off. Both fighters seem to be remaining in the UFC. Rounding out an action packed ppv card, George Sotiropoulos continues his rise at 155 pounds by grinding out an exciting win over Kurt Pellegrino. Neither guy is particularly good at being boring so the pace surprised no one. Sotiropoulos is on the rise and hould see another visible fight and a game opponent in the near future. Spike TV was not without its share of wow moments as Brendan Schuab provided the most dominant performance of the night be making very short work of Chris Tuchscherer. Ricardo Romero and Jerald Harris had to survive some violent attacks before finishing their respective opponents in dazzling fashion. Romero appeared as if he might have broken Seth Petruzelli’ arm while Jerald Harris polished off David Branch with a stunning KO by way of slam. UFC 116 delivered and it delivered big. A fantastic card with a huge headliner, the event made good on its promise of action and even with UFC on Versus 2 around the corner it should keep the MMA world buzzing until UFC 117.