Winners and Losers: UFC 91

Losers

1. Joe Stevenson

In the run up to UFC 91, Stevenson publicly insisted that being matched up with self-improvement machine Kenny Florian was somehow insulting or beneath his ability. To be sure, Stevenson recently earned his Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and he, too, has been diligently working to improve his MMA skill set. But the ominous clouds of karma hung over the MGM Grand Saturday evening and Stevenson took a world-class thrashing at the hands of the Sityodtong standout.

Worse, it's his second decisive shellacking in two of his last three UFC outings. While Florian didn't cut Stevenson into fish bait as B.J. Penn had, he arguably did far more damage to Stevenson's career. By losing to Florian, Stevenson is now seemingly lost amidst the UFC lightweight division. He's certainly a significant step above gatekeeper, as he is capable of beating far more than newcomers, potential washouts and journeymen. But he's unable to match the talents of those at the zenith of the weight class. He is occupying a space at lightweight similar to the one Rich Franklin abandoned at middleweight, and that is certainly no place to be for very long. Stevenson has enormous talent and youth on his side, so here's hoping he can still make use of his considerable upside.

2. Undersized heavyweights

Admittedly, the number of heavyweights who do or could moonlight as light heavyweights in the UFC is fairly small, but expect their numbers to drop precipitously from here on out. Brock Lesnar's ascension atop the UFC heavyweight division reaffirms a cardinal rule in life: size matters.

Even though Randy Couture was defeated Saturday, he did prove that the skills he lacked in his fights with Josh Barnett and Ricco Rodriguez -- namely, an ability to create scrambles or work back to his feet after a takedown -- were dramatically improved. The problem? All of Couture's truly formidable talents and abilities were rendered meaningless with a clubbing right straight that Couture himself described as a very large "ham hock."

For all of the technical wizardry Couture now possesses and for all of the greenness of Lesnar's game, Lesnar's size and athleticism were simply too much to handle. MMA instructors will tell you technique matters more than strength, but they don't tell you there's a ceiling on how much strength can be negated with technique. And it isn't merely Lesnar who is problematic. Mack trucks such as Gabriel Gonzaga, Cain Velazquez and Shane Carwin stand in the way of any scrappy 220-pound "heavyweight" insistent on not cutting weight. Losing 20 pounds in the sauna may be undesirable, but being brutally dismembered at the paws of Man Bear Pig has to be far worse.

3. MMA fans

The Great Unwashed had much to celebrate Saturday night. No, I'm not talking about MMA fans. I'm referring to dyed-in-the-wool professional wrestling stalwarts.

Yes, ardent fans of professional wrestling are now co-opting Brock Lesnar's MMA triumph for their own purposes. Now, I'm not suggesting one can't be a fan of both forms of entertainment, but the exclusionary few who firmly plant themselves in the camp of make-believe have taken it upon themselves to use Lesnar as part of their never-ending search for some sort of athletic legitimacy that professional wrestling does and will always lack.

"Look at how much pain they suffer through!" they'll crow. "Do you know how much athleticism is required to effectively land a Stinger Splash?" they incessantly bark.

With Lesnar's win over Couture, we are now being treated to the "We told you Brock was a real athlete" bromide, as if anyone of intellectual merit and functioning vision was reluctantly denying the obvious. So expect more missing-the-point heckling from these soothsayers. Brock's probably got a few title defenses in him, and this type of professional wrestling fan has decades’ worth of pent-up frustration.

4. Jorge Gurgel's game plan

It's unfair to suggest Gurgel's game plan itself was the "loser"; I'm sure the original game plan was perfectly adequate. It's more that said preparation never saw the light of day Saturday evening. Typical of Gurgel -- a fighter with enormous talent -- he decided to ignore the fact that he had the clear jiu-jitsu advantage over opponent Aaron Riley in favor of a standing slugfest, which just happens to be one of Riley's (and most of Gurgel's previous opponents’) strong suits.

Gurgel desperately wants to not only entertain the fans, but to earn the sort of cinematic, gory white-knuckle victory that he believes is the true essence of fighting. As a consequence, he's lost three of his last four fights and four of his seven fights in the UFC. While I'm certain fans appreciate Gurgel's gut-checking efforts (and his “Fight of the Night” honors at UFC 91 are a testament to his performance), I'm also fairly certain fans would rather Gurgel leave the Jackie Chan theatrics to Don Frye and Yoshihiro Takayama.

Luke Thomas is the Editor-in-Chief of the MMA blog BloodyElbow.com.