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.

Chael Sonnen has done a good job running his mouth, but now, his mouth may not be able to support his fighting career.

After losing to Anderson Silva in an underwhelming performance back at UFC 148, Sonnen was stopped in 4:33 against UFC light heavyweight champion, Jon Jones, on Saturday night at UFC 159.

Sonnen didn’t really deserve a title fight in the first place. He hadn’t fought at 205 pounds in the UFC in over six years, yet somehow got an immediate title fight with Jones.

Sonnen can sell a fight, but even his promos are outdated and tiresome. If you really want to know where Chael Sonnen gets his material, watch tapes of pro wrestling from the 90s.

I will give credit to Sonnen for being one of the best at 185 pounds, but he had no business competing against Jones on Saturday night, and with an unimpressive loss in the first round, he finds himself without any direction for his career.

A rematch with Silva isn’t in the cards and he certainly isn’t going to talk his way into a rematch with Jones after failing to put forth much offense on Saturday night.

Sonnen should do what he does best and that is sell fights, but not for himself, for the UFC. He should stick to being a broadcaster and realize that he had a successful career, despite not winning a title.

In case you have been under a rock today, UFC 151 has been cancelled.

The short story is Dan Henderson injured his knee and couldn’t fight next Saturday, prompting the UFC to offer Jon Jones a replacement opponent of Chael Sonnen. Jones, after speaking with his team, declined to take the fight on such short notice.

So, the UFC, instead of finding a new main event, or just running with the card they setup sans the main event, decided to just axe the event altogether.

In the process, they completely threw the light heavyweight champion under the bus.

Normally, I am on Dana White’s side of things. He is a hot head, no doubt, but he usually tells it like it is.

However, blaming Jones for the canceling of an event is simply a convenient way to take the blame off of himself and the UFC.

First off, canceling an entire UFC event is a big deal. It impacts the fighters, the venue, the host city and those that would be working the event.

Many fighters rely on a small paycheck from fighting on the under card simply to make ends meet. Due to the UFC’s venom spewed at Jones, many of those fighters are now taking their anger and frustration out on the champion as well.

But, let’s all take a deep breath and take into consideration two things:

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Not that many needed convincing, but Anderson Silva is the best fighter in the world.

There was a little bit of doubt in the minds of some due to Silva’s performance against Chael Sonnen at UFC 117, but on Saturday at UFC 148, Silva removed all doubt.

Silva stopped Sonnen at 1:55 into the second round with a barrage of strikes that Sonnen couldn’t respond to, as he defended his UFC Middleweight Championship for the 10^th time.

Sonnen won the first round, as he took Silva down quickly and held him down for five minutes, but Silva showed great takedown defense in the second and used his pinpoint accuracy with his striking to end the fight.

With Sonnen past him for good, there really is no viable challengers left to Silva. Sonnen seemed to have the best style to beat Silva, and the champ still ran through him.

Silva is now 15-0 in his UFC career and just adding to his legacy as the greatest UFC fighter of all time. Perhaps a change in weight class is in order to challenge him, or perhaps he should just retire on top of the world.

In the co-main event, Tito Ortiz saw his career come to an end in a unanimous decision loss to Forrest Griffin.

Ortiz (16-11-1) a former UFC champion and now Hall of Famer, seemed to tire early in the fight, which opened the door for Griffin to pepper him with strikes. Ortiz landed a few big punches and a few takedowns, but Griffin had a 3/1 edge on total strikes and was the more active fighter.

Ortiz is going out at the right time, as he clearly is not among the best in the division and this performance proves it. For knowing it was his last bout, he didn’t have much of a spirited effort to win. For a man of his stature and his talk about being the people’s champion, he sure didn’t go out on his sword.

Griffin didn’t look at that great either, but he was definitely looking to finish the fight at the end.

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It has been a while since I have posted on here, but I am back with weekly looks at MMA, mainly the UFC.

So, here is a look at what we learned this week.

– Nate Diaz may be an unsolvable problem for 155 pounders – Nate Diaz looked more than impressive against Jim Miller in the UFC on FOX 3 main event on Saturday. Miller had the kind of style that I expected to give Diaz some trouble, but he ran right through him. Diaz’ long reach has really been a problem for his opponents and he seems to be a vastly improved fighter since moving back from welterweight to lightweight. Miller was one of the top fighters in the division and Diaz made him look like a first timer. Diaz could legitimately become the UFC champion as I don’t know that a Benson Henderson or Frankie Edgar will be able to outwork him or deal with his jabs.

– Where does Josh Koscheck go from here? – Certainly it would be hard to say that Josh Koscheck was dominated by Johny Hendricks and you could maybe make the argument that he beat Hendricks on Saturday. Regardless, Koscheck certainly didn’t dominate Hendricks either. Koscheck seems to have become a fighter that refuses to go back to his roots when needed. He is one of the top wrestlers, and perhaps most explosive wrestler, in the 170 pound division. Koscheck is relying on his big swings and limited striking to try and win fights, even when it is clear he is not winning. Koscheck has only been out-wrestled one time in his career, and that was by Georges St. Pierre. In a fight like Saturday’s, I would have liked to see him take Hendricks down and work his ground striking as opposed to hoping for a knockout punch. Now Koscheck is lost in the welterweight division and not capable, in my mind, to make a run at middleweight. He needs to reinvent himself if he hopes to ever win UFC gold.

– Where would Alan Belcher be if he never got injures? – Belcher had about as good of a performance as Diaz, as he stopped Rousimar Palhares in the first round with some vicious ground and pound. Belcher was on a nice run in the UFC prior to an eye injury that nearly ended his career and sidelined him for over a year. Since his return, Belcher has first round finishes of Jason MacDonald and Palhares and he has won four straight overall. The middleweight division has quickly become very competitive with the addition of Hector Lombard. With Chael Sonnen, Brian Stann, Mark Munoz, and Michael Bisping all in the mix, Belcher should be right there with them.