UFC 88: Breakthrough saw its share of both boring and exciting fights and was a pretty good event overall.

• For what was a pretty boring first round, the Chuck Liddell vs Rashad Evans fight ended with one of the most spectacular knockouts we have seen in quite a while. Liddell won the first round on points as Evans came out of the gate pretty tentatively and didn’t land any solid strikes in the opening period. The second round saw some more action and ended with what is easily the best knockout of 2008 to date. Liddell went down in an even more dramatic fashion than his KO loss to Quinton Jackson. Liddell’s problem has always been his defense during his exchanges and Evans capitalized on this in a big way and KO’d one of the best light heavyweights of all time.
• Rich Franklin worked a very smart game plan in his fight against Matt Hamill and had a solid showing in his first fight back at light heavyweight. The key for Franklin was in his use of kicks and ultimately ended the fight with a well-placed kick to Hamill’s mid-section. A good showing from Franklin and it will be interesting to see where he goes and who he fights next in a very stacked light heavyweight division.
• While it may not have been a very exciting fight, the Dan Henderson vs Rousimar Palhares fight was a well fought battle by Dan Henderson. Since re-joining the UFC, Henderson has lost both his PrideFC belts and needed a win to get back on track. Fighting Palhares is not an easy task for anyone and Henderson knew the dangerous Rousimar presented on the ground. Henderson stayed composed when grappling with Palhares and threw some good strikes when on the feet. A solid win for Henderson but he still seems to be lacking that explosiveness that made him so exciting during his Pride “glory days.”
• When Nathan Marquardt comes out aggressive and ready to fight he is very tough to beat. Martin Kampmann learned this the hard way as he was battered by a controlled barrage of strikes from Marquardt.
• Personally, I don’t see why anyone saw any kind of “controversy” in the Dong Hyun Kim decision victory over Matt Brown. In my book, Kim clearly won the first and third rounds while Brown clearly took the middle stanza.
• The UFC awarded $60,000 “superlative” bonuses for UFC 88 with Submission of the Night going to Jason MacDonald, Fight of the Night going to Kurt Pellegrino and Thiago Tavares, and Knockout of the Night clearly going to Rashad Evans.
• At the post-fight press conference, Dana White indicated that with his victory over Liddell, Evans had earned a shot at Forest Griffin’s light heavyweight title. A date for the fight has not been set, but Evans is next in line for a title shot which is what most of our readers thought should happen.
• Oh, and what was up with Rashad and the nipple-tweaking before the fight?