In the last three weeks, four of MMA's divisional champions were in action. Only two of them remain.
Just after Silva turned in his show-stealing effort, B.J. Penn entrenched himself as the top lightweight in the sport with a masterful and mature performance against top contender Kenny Florian. Penn thwarted all the offense of "Ken Flo" before polishing him off in a dominating fourth round.
The lighter champions were not quite as fortunate.
Though his Shooto 123-pound world championship wasn't at stake, Shinichi "BJ" Kojima squared off with fast-rising Brazilian prospect Jussier "Formiga" da Silva, the Shooto South America champion. Kojima turned in another underwhelming performance and was soundly handled by "Formiga," who figures to rematch Kojima for his title later this year.
Miguel Torres was a pound-for-pound entrant and expected to reign with impunity over the bantamweight division. However, in Torres’ fourth defense of his WEC bantamweight title, unbeaten challenger Brian Bowles had different ideas. Bowles flattened Torres in the first round and put a new face atop the developing division.