As someone who appreciates martial art technique, of course I enjoy seeing a close match up, where two fighters struggle back and forth to take the lead in the Octagon. But every now and then, a fighter walks in and so thoroughly demolishes his opponent that you can’t help but revel in the unquestioned domination. Fans of the UFC who enjoy online betting in Canada have also helped push this dynamic sport to a new level of popularity. Here are ten of our personal favorites – in no particular order.

Anderson Silva vs Forrest Griffin, UFC 101

If Silva hadn’t already registered as a legend in everyone’s mind by this point, this fight secured that status. He had already scored wins against Chris Leben, Dan Henderson, and Rich Franklin (twice), but he ran a clinic on Griffin in the 3:23 they spent in the Octagon together. It was difficult to pick one fight of Silva’s. As anyone who has seen him fight knows, pretty much anytime he enters the Octagon, he moves like Neo in The Matrix. What makes this fight particularly impressive is that by the end, Forrest actually waves him off and surrenders. Astounding.

Georges St. Pierre vs. Jason Miller, UFC 52

In the lead up to this fight, Miller said he was going to make GSP take advantage of Canada’s free healthcare. GSP made him eat his words. For the entire three-round fight, GSP so utterly dominated Miller, that it almost feels like you’re watching a video of a 9-year-old boy trying to fight his much-bigger 12-year-old brother. There isn’t a minute where Miller even seemed to have a chance at winning this fight.

Junior Dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez II, UFC 155

JDS won his first battle with Velasquez in just 64 seconds. It was the only fight Cain had ever lost, and at the time of this writing, it still is. In this rematch, Velasquez was so terrifyingly dominant, that by halfway through the second round, I was convinced it wouldn’t go to a third. But it did – and to a fourth, and to a fifth. Dos Santos took and survived one of the most vicious beatings ever witnessed in the Octagon. It was frightening to watch. In photos from after the match, Junior looks like he’d spent the last hour making out with a hornet’s nest.

Alistair Overeem vs. Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, UFC 156

Overeem was 4-to-1 favorite to win the fight. The UFC had basically given him another win to add to his record. Well, they tried to give it to him, at least. For the first two rounds, it was a pretty exciting fight, a lot of back and forth, but the ‘Reem was clearly leading the charge. Joe Rogan even pointed out in the commentary that “Alistair’s got his hands down, chin up — not worried at all about ‘Bigfoot.'” Maybe he should have been, because when the bell rang and round three started, a raging bull let loose out of Bigfoot’s corner. Quickly pinned against the cage, Overeem could do nothing to stop the onslaught of blows from Bigfoot. It’s hard to say for sure, but watching the replay, it looked like Overeem was already unconscious when the last five or six blows landed, and it was only the force of Bigfoot’s uppercuts keeping him upright against the cage. This might not have been a one-sided battle, but the ending was so severe that this fight definitely deserves the massacre label.

BJ Penn vs. Joe Stevenson, UFC 80

By 2 minutes into the first round, Penn was already dominating this fight, controlling Stevenson on the ground, applying tons of pressure and landing vicious blows. At about 30 seconds from the end of Round 1, Penn landed an elbow to Stevenson’s forehead that opened up a gushing wound worthy of a Wes Craven slasher films. Amazingly, the ring doctors were able to stop the bleeding enough between rounds for the fight to keep going, but Stevenson was on the receiving end of more brutal punishment for the rest of the fight. Penn locked in a rear-naked choke 4 minutes into Round 2, but by that point, BJ could have finished the fight any way he wanted.

Frank Mir vs. Brock Lesnar II, UFC 100

Mir had beaten Lesnar in their first meeting, but Brock had learned a lesson or two since then, and this fight turned out quite different. Right from the beginning, Lesnar took Mir down, and proceeded to demonstrate how he earned a record of 106–5 in NCAA college wrestling. Total control from the top, Frank Mir had no answers to Brock’s pressure. In the second round, Mir tried a different tactic and attempted to turn the fight into a slugfest. Lesnar slammed Mir to the ground, and pounded his face with anvil-sized fists until the ref stopped the match.

Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen, UFC 159

A lot of people wrote this fight off as a slam-dunk for Jones. But Sonnen was the guy who had almost beaten Anderson Silva twice. He has incredible wrestling, and is hilarious to listen to when he talks smack. It was arguable that Sonnen was going to present at least a bit of a challenge to Jones. But that never happened. Not only did Jones bash Sonnen unrelentingly, he landed three takedowns on a man who had never been taken down in his UFC career, and all within the first 4 minutes of the first round. Before the end of that round, Jones delivered enough crushing blows that the fight was stopped.

Tim Sylvia vs. Randy Couture, UFC 68

At the time of the fight, Couture was 43 years old, while Sylvia was two days shy of his 31st birthday. Couture hadn’t fought as a heavyweight in close to five years, and Sylvia was 41 pounds heavier than Couture, was seven inches taller, and had a whopping 11.5” reach advantage. It was almost laughable. What happened next though was unbelievable. Couture absolutely controlled every second of the fight. While the match the distance, and not much blood was shed, there is no question that this fight was a massacre. The final score was 50-45, but I personally would have scored Sylvia an eight in at least two of those rounds.

Cain Velasquez vs. Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, UFC 146

I tried to avoid repeating anyone in this list, but how could any list of massacres ignore this one? And this one has Cain beating the winner of another fight in this list, so here we go! This fight was a blood bath, literally. Bigfoot tried to land a kick early in the fight, but Velasquez grabbed his foot and topped the giant to the ground. Cain proceeded to open a massive cut on Silva’s forehead that ended up covering both fighters in the thick, red life-juice. The fight was completely one-sided, and before the end of the first round, Silva had lost not only a pint or two of blood, but the fight as well

Gary Goodridge vs Paul Herrera, UFC 6

I threw this one in for the laugh factor. Over in just a few seconds, it’s a reminder of how much the sport has evolved its 20-year run. Goodridge, in a full martial arts gear no less, quickly trapped both of Herrera’s arms in a crucifix lock and proceeded to deliver the most thorough elbow beat down anyone has ever received in the Octagon. Less than 15 seconds after the start of the fight, Herrera was unconscious, and Goodridge had secured his place in UFC history. No matter the UFC event and no matter the fighters involved, fans of the UFC can always visit the top rated betting sites at Online Betting Canada to get in on the action.

We just can’t have nice things.

There is a serious issue going on with the UFC as of late – injuries.

This past week, the scheduled super-fight between Jose Aldo and Anthony Pettis for later this summer was scrapped when it was discovered that Pettis injured his knee.

I can’t tell you how disappointing it was to hear this news. I was looking forward to this fight as much as I have any other fight, ever.

The styles of both men would have made for a tremendous chess match and exciting battle.

But, alas, it is not to be.

I can’t say that I didn’t see it coming. There has been a rash of injuries that have cancelled fights in recent years for the UFC.

Even yesterday’s UFC had to go with a replacement main event when interim bantamweight champion Renan Barao had to back out of his title fight with Eddie Wineland due to an injury.

Prior to that, UFC 160 had its co-main event change to Junior dos Santos vs. Mark Hunter after Alistair Overeem was injured.

It seems like every announced PPV card ultimately gets changed due to injuries.

The UFC implemented an insurance plan for its fighters that cover training injuries a few years back. The plan is a great idea and something the organization needed to do. But, since that plan came into place, more injuries seem to be taking place in training.

I am guessing the amount of injuries isn’t increasing in training, simply the fighters are more willing to pull out of a fight because their medical care will be covered. Prior to that, a fighter needed to compete in order to receive that medical coverage. So, if a fighter was hurt in training, he needed to grit it out and fight in order to get his injury repaired after his bout.

The coverage plan can’t change, but the intensity of training can. Fighters need to be smarter in how they prepare. Their grappling and wrestling practices are causing too many injuries. Fighters need to do what they can to be ready for a fight, but they can’t do it at a risk of injuring themselves and having a fight be cancelled.

There are plenty of exciting fights that could take place in the UFC, including a super-fight like Anderson Silva vs. Jon Jones. But, what are the odds we will ever see it take place where both men will stay injury free in order to fight?

The UFC has been big with their announcements and another big one dropped on Tuesday.

The organization released through the L.A. Times that on Dec. 30, Alistair Overeem will make his UFC debut against none other than Brock Lesnar.

Brock Lesnar will return to the UFC octagon in a five-round main event Dec. 30 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, facing newly signed former Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem.

“Brock is a big name, a dangerous guy, and this is a dream matchup,” Overeem told The Times on Tuesday, just after signing a standard UFC fight contract in the office of Chairman Lorenzo Fertitta. “Brock’s a big guy, an exciting wrestler with his takedowns.

“I want to see this fight myself. Overall, I’m a different fighter. A striker, athletic, big. These are going to be two big trucks going at it on a collision course.”

This fight will be as anticipated as the Velasquez vs. dos Santos bout on Nov. 12, if not more, as Lesnar has the drawing power and Overeem was the last Strikeforce champion.

It is expected that this will be the main event of UFC 141 from Las Vegas and will take place on a Friday night, with New Year’s Eve being on a Saturday this year.

In terms of the fight, this should be explosive and very interesting. Overeem has the clear striking edge, but will he be able to fend off the explosive takedown attempts of Lesnar?

Either way, I don’t see this fight lasting too long.

The interesting career of Alistair Overeem has taken another turn.

On Friday night, MMAFighting.com reported that the Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion was released from his contract by the promotion.

The organization has released its heavyweight champion, MMA Fighting confirmed with multiple sources close to the fighter, including his trainer Martijn de Jong. HDNet first reported the news on its Inside MMA program Friday night.

Overeem had one fight left on his current contract. He was not immediately available for comment. When contacted by MMA Fighting, Strikeforce officials would not confirm or deny Overeem’s departure from the organization.

The news comes on the heels of the announcement that Overeem was removed from the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix last week after he told Zuffa he wouldn’t be ready to fight Antonio Silva in the semi-finals on Sept. 10 due to scheduling and multiple injuries.

You can look at this one of two ways: 1. Zuffa wants nothing to do with Overeem or 2. Zuffa wants to sign Overeem into the UFC.

Hopefully option two is the case because he is too talented a striker to not be prominent in American MMA.

The rankings list has made its way back to the heavyweight division.

There have been a few shake ups in this group as of late, mainly near the top. Still, the division has remained pretty solid as we work toward the big meeting of Velasquez vs. dos Sanots.

1. Cain Velasquez (9-0): Velasquez will return in November to take on Junior dos Santos. It will be a tough test for the UFC champ, as he has not fought in nearly a year and is coming off a major surgery.

2. Junior dos Santos (13-1): dos Santos tore through Shane Carwin in an impressive victory that solidified his spot as the top contender to the UFC crown. Junior has proven he can out-strike a striker and stuff a takedown, but will he be able to handle the explosiveness and speed of Velasquez?

3. Brock Lesnar (5-2): Lesnar may not return anytime soon, but I still think he deserves a high ranking as he was able to beat some of the best on this list before getting injured. Lesnar is going to need to show he can handle getting hit when he returns if he hopes to contend for the title ever again.

4. Alistair Overeem (35-11): Overeem was able to beat Werdum without too much difficulty but wasn’t impressive in his own right. Now, some debate with Zuffa has gotten him taken off the rest of the Strikeforce Grand Prix and leaves his MMA future in question. Hopefully Overeem will return and maybe someday step inside the octagon.

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