UFC 132 took place last night and was one of the most entertaining PPV’s I have seen in quite some time.

There were so many storylines that emerged from the event, but I guess I will have to start with the main event.

Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber put on quite a show, proving that bantamweights can headline a PPV. In the end, Cruz won a close unanimous decision that had Faber crushed and Cruz looking very joyous and relieved (AP Photograph).

I personally felt Cruz won 48-47 based on scoring rounds, but I don’t feel like the fight had a true winner or loser. I didn’t think Faber did enough to warrant winning the title, but I think he should be considered for an immediate rematch.

Faber’s quickness did nullify some of Cruz’ movement, but Cruz still seemed to dictate the pace and style of the fight. The ground scrambles were really impressive from both men and that essentially made the fight a standup battle, where Cruz landed a lot more strikes.

In the co-main event, Chris Leben defeated Wanderlei Silva by KO in just 27 seconds. Coming in, many thought Tito Ortiz would be fighting his last fight, but it may have been Silva that did, as he suffers another big time KO and is just 2-6 in his last eight fights.

I don’t know what this means for Leben, but he certainly recovered well from his loss to Stann earlier this year.

Perhaps the biggest thing to happen Saturday was Ortiz’ very surprising submission of Ryan Bader in the first round.

Ortiz caught Bader with a big right hand and then followed up with a guillotine choke to get the win. With his career on the line, Ortiz was not surprisingly quite emotional after the victory. He pulled out his famous “grave digger” celebration, which I thought was a little much. There is the old adage about acting like you have been there before, but I guess when you haven’t won a fight in five years, you never know when you will get a chance to win again.

Bader has now lost two in a row and has a long road to get back to top contender status. Ortiz deserves another big name for his next fight and we will see how far he can take this.

In other bouts, Carlos Condit had a very impressive KO win over previously unbeaten, Dong Hyun Kim. I expected Kim to use his size and strength to out-grapple Condit, but “The Natural Born Killer” never let that happen, landing big strikes early and often before using a flying knee to setup the victory. Condit quietly requested a title shot after the fight, but he probably has another win or two to go to seal that up.

In a controversial lightweight decision, Dennis Siver beat Matt Wiman. Siver won 29-28 on all three cards. Wiman was noticeably upset after the fight and stormed off, but I personally thought Siver won rounds one and three and Wiman clearly won round two. I don’t think Wiman can honestly say that he clearly won that fight.

Another impressive showing on the night came from lightweight Melvin Guillard, who scored a first round KO of Shane Roller. Guillard is on a role now and fighting with a lot of confidence. He is knocking on the door for a title shot. I personally would enjoy seeing a fight with him and Anthony Pettis.

The main card features five exciting bouts and here are my picks for the contest.

UFC Bantamweight Championship – Dominick Cruz (17-1) vs. Urijah Faber (25-4) – In this rematch I see Cruz winning by unanimous decision. His movement and wrestling will be too much for Faber to deal with. Cruz is a much different fighter than the one that met Faber before and I expect his footwork to pose problems for Faber and his explosive takedowns will be too much for Faber to stuff.

Middleweight Bout – Wanderlei Silva (33-10-1) vs. Chris Leben (21-7) – In this battle of strikers, I like Silva as I think his striking is a little more diverse. I think Silva’s chin is a little weaker, but I expect Silva to land the big punch first. Leben has a big heart, but he has struggled against strikers in the past. Look for Silva to win by second round TKO.

Light Heavyweight Bout – Tito Ortiz (16-8-1) vs. Ryan Bader (12-1) – This should be Ortiz’ final bout with the UFC as I see Bader winning by decision. I think the fight should be competitive, but Bader’s athleticism and combination of wrestling and striking should be too much for Ortiz, who will have to score takedowns in order to win.

Welterweight Bout – Carlos Condit (26-5) vs. Dong Hyun Kim (14-0-1) – This should be a very close fight, but I like Kim to remain unbeaten. His size and strength should be too much for Condit. I see Kim putting his weight on Condit against the fence and then scoring some judo throws and takedowns to control Condit. Look for Kim to win by decision.

Lightweight Bout – Dennis Siver (18-7) vs. Matt Wiman (13-5) – Siver is a short, compact striker that is hard to get to the ground because of his low center of gravity. I see Wiman struggling to get the fight to the ground, and that will allow Siver to out-point Wiman with his striking. My pick is Siver by decision.

One of the first superstars of MMA was Tito Ortiz, but on Saturday, he can be facing his last appearance in the octagon if he is unable to beat, or maybe just compete, against Ryan Bader.

Bader was one win away from perhaps fighting for the UFC Light Heavyweight championship, but he was dominated by current champ, Jon Jones.

Here is a breakdown of both fighters heading into this contest.

Tito Ortiz (15-8-1) – Ortiz is 0-4-1 in his last five fights and he hasn’t picked up a victory since 2006. Ortiz is a strong wrestler, but he has never quite evolved in his striking and many of the top light heavyweights have been able to match his wrestling ability. His last loss saw him taken down by Matt Hamill, and Ryan Bader appears to be a more explosive wrestler than Hamill.

Ryan Bader (12-1) – Bader ran through the UFC until facing Jones, but he picked up some solid wins along the way. Bader has used a mixture of takedowns and big hooks to beat his opponents. While he isn’t a great technical striker, he has some good power. He is able to fake takedowns and follow up with a big overhand hook because his opponents are too busy preparing for the shot. Bader is very athletic and can push a good pace for a 15-minute fight. Bader did struggle with the wrestling of Jon Jones, and Ortiz does have some good explosiveness in his takedown attempts.

Who Will Win – Ortiz is skilled, but he just doesn’t have what it takes to beat today’s superior MMA fighters. Bader is a better version of what Ortiz was in his prime. I see Bader being able to stuff Ortiz’ takedown attempts and Bader being able to get Ortiz down a few times each round. I also see Bader getting the best of the striking exchanges in this fight. Look for Bader to win by decision.

This week, the TV focus is solely on UFC 132, as the premiere MMA organization puts on a pretty strong card on Saturday night in Las Vegas.

– On Wednesday, the Countdown to UFC 132 premiers on SpikeTV at 1:12 p.m. ET. The UFC lists the time, which seems like an odd time to begin a show. The show will go in depth about the key bouts of UFC 132. It will re-air on SpikeTV on Thursday at 11 p.m. and Saturday at 6 p.m. It will also re-air on Versus on Thursday at 7 p.m.

– Prior to the UFC PPV on Saturday, SpikeTV will air UFC 132 Prelims Live at 8 p.m. The two free prelims on SpikeTV are expected to be a pair of lightweight showdowns as Melvin Guillard faces off with Shane Roller and George Sotiropoulos takes on Rafael Dos Anjos.

– At 9 p.m. ET, UFC 132 airs live on PPV. The main event of the card features a bantamweight championship bout between Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber. In the co-main event, strikers Chris Leben and Wanderlei Silva meet in a middleweight clash. Light Heavyweights Tito Ortiz and Ryan Bader will also face off in a featured bout.

In the main event, UFC Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz is a slight favorite to beat challenger Urijah Faber. Cruz has odds of -130 while Faber has a money line of +100.

Faber is the only blemish on Cruz’ record, but Cruz is a much different fighter now and Faber has somewhat underwhelmed in his short time at bantamweight.

In the co-main event, Wanderlei Silva (-185) is favored to beat Chris Leben (+155) in what should be a slugfest in the middleweight division. Both men are standup fighters that like to trade punches. You would expect someone to get KO’d in this one.

Silva has the more impressive wins list, but his chin is not nearly as strong as it once was. Leben isn’t a great technical striker, but when he hits you, it does a lot of damage.

In what could be Tito Ortiz’ final bout with the UFC, he is a heavy underdog (+365) in his contest with wrestling standout Ryan Bader (-465).

Bader has just one loss in his career, to current champion Jon Jones. Ortiz hasn’t won a fight since beating Ken Shamrock in October of 2006. He hasn’t beaten anyone currently relevant since he beat Forrest Griffin in a close decision in April of 2006.

Check out all the current odds for UFC 132 after the jump.

UFC 132 Betting Odds

Saturday, July 2

Bantamweight Championship – Dominick Cruz (-130) vs. Urijah Faber (+100)

Middleweight Bout – Chris Leben (+155) vs. Wanderlei Silva (-185)

Welterweight Bout – Dong Hyun Kim (-120) vs. Carlos Condit (-110)

Light Heavyweight Bout – Tito Ortiz (+365) vs. Ryan Bader (-465)

Lightweight Bout – Shane Roller (+215) vs. Melvin Guillard (-275)

Lightweight Bout – Dennis Siver (-135) vs. Matt Wiman (+105)

Here is a look at how I see the top 10 in the 205-pound division in MMA. (Click here to see other weight class rankings)

1. Jon Jones (13-1): Jones is still the leader of the pack but now seems to finally have his next opponent finalized. It looks to be Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, in what will be a very tough fight. Jones may struggle to move the large Jackson and in punch-for-punch power, he probably doesn’t have the edge against his veteran opponent.

2. Rashad Evans (15-1-1): Rashad Evans is still the No. 1 contender in my eyes as he disposed of Jackson in his last fight and was set to challenge for the title before suffering a minor knee injury. Now set to face rising star, Phil Davis, Evans will have to prove that he can still hang with the best after more than a year away form action.

3. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (32-8): Rampage looked good but not great in his decision win over Matt Hamill. He landed some good punches on Hamill and stuffed each of his takedown attempts. While Hamill has a good wrestling background, he lacked the explosive takedown attempts that Jackson will see against the likes of Evans, Jones, or even a Ryan Bader.

4. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (19-5): Shogun is working his way back to action as he will face Forrest Griffin in a rematch of UFC 96. That will take place at UFC 134 in Rio and provide Shogun the chance to prove that he can be champion again one day. His biggest challenge is being able to keep pace with the elite fighters in this division.

5. Lyoto Machida (17-2): Despite a very impressive KO win over Randy Couture, there isn’t much room for Machida to move up. Shogun had his number in two fights in my opinion, and Jackson was able to do enough to earn a decision win over him. Machida is still perhaps the most dangerous opponent in the whole division as one sudden move from him can end the fight.

6. Phil Davis (9-0): Davis has the chance to show he can be in the top 5 when he takes on Evans in the main event of UFC 133. It will be a meeting of two strong wrestlers and force Davis to show that he can strike with some of the elite fighters in the UFC. I don’t see Davis’ wrestling being better than Evans, so he will have to be creative with his gameplan.

7. Ryan Bader (12-1): Bader is still lying in the weeds after his loss to Jon Jones last winter. He will now face Tito Ortiz at UFC 132, which gives him a chance to beat a legend. Bader can become a real threat if he develops his striking and becomes more than a one-dimensional fighter.

8. Forrest Griffin (18-6): Griffin is a guy that you can’t take lightly, but he just doesn’t have a style that wows you either. Though he was once champion, I don’t really see a scenario where he will wear the title again. He has a chance to beat Shogun for a second time at UFC 134, which would perhaps be the biggest accomplishment in his career to this point.

9. Dan Henderson (27-8): Henderson is the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion, but don’t look for the UFC to be in a rush to put him in the octagon anytime soon. Next up for Hendo is Fedor Emelianenko in a non-title heavyweight clash. The fight gives Henderson a chance to lay claim to being one of the best ever in any weight class.

10. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (19-5): This spot was formerly held by Matt Hamill but I was disappointed by his lackluster showing against Rampage, as I expected him to be more competitive. Filling his spot was tough, but I decided to go with Lil Nog’ as he has some accomplished wins in his career and he losses come to some of the guys already ahead of him in this list. He will face off with Rich Franklin at UFC 133, which will be an interesting showdown to two strikers with unique styles. Both men need to win that fight to stay truly relevant in the division.

However, I was able to find some tidbits that you may be interested in.

– It appears that Tito Ortiz and Jenna Jameson are having another lovers’ quarrel. Like any media hungry respectable couple, the two have taken to their Twitter accounts (Here’s Tito’s and here’s Jenna’s) to hurl insults at one another. Tito accuses Jenna of cheating and Jenna accuses Tito of domestic abuse. Boy, if these two level-headed people can’t make it work out, what couple can? Any chance Ortiz uses this as a reason to pull out of his UFC 132 bout with Ryan Bader in hopes to get a lesser opponent?

– Quinton “Rampage” Jackson made us all a little uncomfortable by sexually harassing a female reporter on camera, again. The incident isn’t the first time that Rampage has been sexually aggressive toward a female interviewer. He is just begging to have a major lawsuit handed to him and the UFC. (MMAFighting)

– Dream “Fight for Japan” took place on Sunday and top lightweight, Shinya Aoki, added to his impressive record with a submission of former UFC contender, Rich Clementi. Aoki improves to 28-5 in his MMA career and the submission against Clementi came in the second round from a face lock. Aoki has now won his last three fights by submission. (Sherdog)

– Thiago Alves thinks he won his UFC 130 bout with Rick Story. Apparently Alves forgot about the first two rounds where he mounted little offense and spent a great deal of time on his back. Alves did have an impressive third round, but he didn’t finish the fight. Last time I checked, winning one round isn’t as good as winning two rounds. (MMAMania)

None other than “Big Country” Roy Nelson caught this little verbal exchange between Matt Mitrione and Tito Ortiz.

Now, the background behind this encounter is that Mitrione had some unflattering remarks that he made about Ortiz’ wife, Jenna Jameson.

Mitrione was joking that Ortiz would pull out of his upcoming UFC 132 fight with Ryan Bader and let Jameson take the fight instead, claiming she is good off her back and has amazing top control.

Now, granted, I wouldn’t want someone talking about my wife like that and would be pretty upset if they did. However, if I married the world’s most famous porn star, I would probably expect that to happen.

Instead of going after a younger and stronger fighter in Matt Mitrione, Ortiz should just remain focused on Bader and ending a four year winless streak.

Then again, Ortiz is probably just trying to set up another fight for himself after he loses to Bader.

I will get back to some follow up thoughts on Saturday’s event later today, but for now, I thought I would post some tweets from last night on fighter’s reactions to the President’s announcement.

@BrianStann (Brian Stann) – Bin Laden is dead, I hope this continues the movement towards more freedoms for the people in the middle east and an end to ops for our forces

@danhardymma (Dan Hardy) – One less murdering lunatic in the world. Always good news.

@aaronsimpson (Aaron Simpson) – Go F yourself Osama.

@TimKennedyMMA (Tim Kennedy) – I find myself kind of sad that Osama Bin Ladin is dead. I have fantasized about killing him almost as much as zombies… I will have to find a replacement.

@NateRockQuarry (Nathan Quarry) – This just in: Steven Seagal kicks Osama Bin Laden with front kick

@ryanbader (Ryan Bader) – Steven Seagal finally found Osama! #deathbyfrontkicktochin.

@Jonnybones (Jon Jones) – Im sorry I’ve been off twitter I’ve been on a top secret super hero mission for past few days. Sure u heard about it by now. Lol

@kennyflorian – (Kenny Florian) – This is the greatest small team military operation of all time imo. Rest assured the highest skilled warriors were involved. #RealBlackOps

@ANTHONYRUMBLE (Anthony Johnson) – This actually gives me chills thinking about all the hurt that Bin Laden has done to the world. Mixed emotions right now.

@DanielGracie (Daniel Gracie) – I am so proud to be here in the US and I support the troops and families who keep us all free. Thank you for your service and commitment.

@CarlosCondit (Carlos Condit) – Cheers, to our special forces for taking care of business and to bin ladens rotting corpse, may he burn in hell

@vitorbelfort (Vitor Belfort) – Tonight Ben liden is burning in he’ll. Remember one thing the best in not the beginning or even during, but how u end your life congrats all

@MiguelTorresMMA (Miguel Torres) – The first rule of Project Mayhem is…

Probably not.

Yet, that is the reality that is Tito Ortiz.

Ortiz has not won a fight since October 10, 2006. That is about 54 months by my count. Yet, Ortiz is still landing major fights on pay-per-view and he will now be taking on Ryan Bader as part of the main card of UFC 132.

Ortiz was once a dominant champion in the UFC, but that was back in the early 2000’s when Tim Sylvia was still a factor.

What is funny about Ortiz’ is that he still talks about getting back “his belt”. I don’t know that Ortiz could beat any champion in any UFC weight class right now, let alone light heavyweight champ Jon Jones.

Ortiz is a pretty easy guy to game plan for too. Just stay off your back. His striking hasn’t evolved since he was champion and now, guys are throwing him around like he used to throw his opponents around.

I respect what Ortiz has done, but he is only hurting his legacy with each loss. His time has passed and just like the UFC did with Chuck Liddell, it is time for the organization to force him away from the octagon.