This past Friday Alistair Overeem stamped his ticket to challenge for the UFC heavyweight championship by defeating former ruler of the heavyweight landscape Brock Lesnar and forcing him into an early retirement.
Brock Lesnar announced his retirement in the cage at UFC 141. The man from Webster, South Dakota who had faced down the toughest heavyweights the sport has to offer as well as two separate bouts with diverticulitis, said he was fulfilling a promise to his family that if he lost to Alistair Overeem, he would pack in his MMA career and head back home.
Chael Sonnen has been the most entertaining fighter of 2011 even though he has only fought once in 2011. His biggest feud of 2011 was his verbal warfare against Anderson Silva. He has made plenty of verbal jabs at him, but is supposedly over him and has moved on to wanting to face off against either Georges St-Pierre or Jon Jones.
UFC 141 was the perfect event to end a banner year for the world's premier mixed martial arts promotion. We saw the rise of young new stars with Alexander Gustafsson and Jimy Hettes. Alistair Overeem, Nate Diaz and Johny Hendricks fought to make their cases for title contentions. We also witnessed the retirement of one of the biggest draws in MMA, Brock Lesnar. Let's take a look at what may be next for the fighters of UFC 141 in the coming new year.
The Nevada State Athletic Commission released the payouts for the fighters that competed in last Friday's (Dec.30) UFC 141 event at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
UFC 141 went down as a night of spectacular fights, well the main card at least. As the final card of 2011, the UFC brought some power. Nam Phan lost an upset decision to Jim Hettes, Alexander Gustafsson absolutely obliterated Vladimir Matyushenko, Johny Hendricks pulled off the unthinkable and KO'd Jon Fitch 7 seconds into the first and Alistair Overeem TKO'd Brock Lesnar and forced him into retirement.
Dream ‘Genki Desu Ka!’ New Year's Eve card goes down at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. Headlining the card is the return of Fedor Emelianenko to Japan since December 31, 2007. His opponent is 2008 Judo Olympic gold medalist Satoshi Ishii, who currently resides in California to train at Mark Munoz's Reign Training Center.
Also on the card is the featherweight title fight of Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Takeshi "Lion" Inoue, the lightweight title fight of Shinya Aoki vs. Satoru Kitaoka, and the bantamweight Grand Prix.
One of the key breakout stars of the year has been Alexander Gustafsson.
Beginning his year in Sydney, Australia Gustafsson submitted local hero James Te Huna with a rear-naked-choke with only seconds remaining in the opening round.
