We’ve got controversy people.

This past weekend should have marked another fine chapter in what has been an otherwise great year for UFC and MMA in America. Instead it became one more example—along with the Cerrone/Henderson fight in WEC recently—that showed why the ten-point must system of scoring fights is only suitable for boxing. Like the WEC fight, this one saw a unanimous decision winner by close scorecards that were off each time. In the case of the Cerrone/Henderson fight, it came down to how you looked at the first round. In the case of Machida/Shogun it was something far worse.

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The Yokohama Arena was the center for a day full of surprises from Dream’s latest offering.

While crowning the promotion’s first featherweight champ was set in stone, the appearance of Kazushi Sakuraba at the last minute did somewhat balance out the absence of Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto, who was rumored to be on the card during the final weeks before the show. However, to most MMA fans, the show’s main attraction was a title match, but of the non-tournament variety with Shinya Aoki and Joachim Hansen finishing their trilogy off in grand style. The trilogy may be complete, but the rivalry may not.

Shinya Aoki won his second career title (I’m guessing nobody really recognizes WAMMA) by submitting then-Dream lightweight champ Joachim Hansen with only four seconds left in the second and final round of their title fight. The loss did bring the title itself full circle as Hansen TKO’d Aoki last summer in the final of the lightweight Grand Prix to win the tournament and the title. Aoki won the first meeting between the two in quick fashion via submission at Pride’s Shockwave 2006 show. The fight itself didn’t have the action or quickness that the other two had with Aoki opting for a more slow-paced approach, one that played to his best better than it did for Hansen who relies on his striking much more than Aoki. What transpired was next to fifteen minutes of grappling and mat work with little standing action. However, the final twenty seconds is what made the fight noteworthy: with both men on the mat and doing little, Hansen decided to try and earn an escape before the final seconds ticked off, made his move to break free, and Aoki caught him in the exact position needed for an Armbar and got it.

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Chris Arreola fought gamely, but that was all he did this past Saturday Night in Los Angeles.

Vitali Klitschko fully reasserted his dominance over the heavyweight division (alongside his brother and titleholder Vladimir) with a tenth round technical knockout of the then-undefeated Arreola.

Referee Jon Schorle stopped the fight after Arreola went to his corner following round ten. By this point in the fight there was no conceivable way Arreola could win the fight other than a knockout of Klitschko, and that simply wasn’t going to happen on this night.

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Floyd Mayweather picked up an easy unanimous decision victory to move to 40-0 in what was considered the best performance of his career. I would have to agree with this sentiment. The fight could be seen as another Mayweather boxing exhibition that had no business going the distance. More than that, the fight was more symbolic than any previous Floyd Mayweather fight because it was about proving to people that he was still the pound-for-pound king, not reaffirming that position.

Brian Bowles had the night Kenny Florian should’ve had.

Last weekend was a Zuffa dominated weekend of MMA that featured UFC’s Philadelphia debut as well as another up-and-down excellent WEC show both of which saw stunning knockouts, both of which the people at the show and many watching didn’t see coming. Anderson Silva may have cemented his pound-for-pound number one status with a quick and brutal knockout of Forrest Griffin in a fight unanimously viewed as a real test for Silva considering it was at 205-lbs. and it was a capable 205-lb. fighter this time around; the other shocker was Brian Bowles knocking out Miguel Torres in only his eighth career MMA fight to end Torres’ win streak at 17 and taking the WEC Bantamweight title in the process. UFC also had another surprise ending for their Philadelphia show in the form of B.J. Penn continuing to dominate the lightweight division choking out Kenny Florian in round four of a fight that most including myself saw as the final step to Florian taking his rightful position atop the lightweight division; apparently the man on top prior to the fight still deserves that spot. And, you read it here, this will be the last time I will ever doubt B.J. Penn going into a fight unless he wants a third shot at GSP.

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UFC 100 was truly Dana White’s finest hour.

You can make the debates about past events that carry more historical significance right now—Ortiz/Shamrock I, Griffin/Bonnar I, Liddell/Ortiz II being the first MMA show to break a million buys—and they all fail to compare to what UFC 100 produced. Dana White got the champion he wanted, the buyrate he wanted, and more importantly the opportunity to finally say, “we are legit” without argument. The nearly 1.8 million buys that UFC 100 looks to have pulled in puts them in the top five all-time for PPV buys for an MMA, boxing, or wrestling pay-per-view. Again, it was their finest hour.

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Cotto improved to 34-1 with the win, but it was not an easy one as Cotto had to noticeably outwork Clottey (35-3) in the final three rounds to swing the judges back to his favor for the win.

With the bigger names and wild personalities involved, most would anticipate Strikeforce’s offering to be the better card this past weekend, but in this writer’s opinion, WEC gets the nod with another fine outing, something that has been the norm this year and makes the extension to ten shows for next year seem more and more like a smart business decision instead of a gamble.

Hughes in the first round defied time by escaping Serra’s onslaught that should have finished him, shaking off the cobwebs, and nearly finishing Serra by round’s end.

Finally a young guy beats an old guy.

Twenty-six year old Chad Dawson stayed unbeaten with a decision win over forty year-old Antonio Tarver, the same way Dawson beat Tarver last year.