Stephan Bonnar.  Chris Leben.  Brock Lesnar.  Last night, all three of these men displayed an incredible amount of heart and a seemingly indomitable will to win.  What's more, each man outdid the performance of the last.  It is this ability to overcome adversity and almost certain defeat that really makes me respect these fighters.  Such displays of mental toughness are always a joy to watch and help create some of the most entertaining fights in the sport.

Admittedly, I missed the prelims and the Pellegrino-Sotiropolous fight, but I thought 116 was an awesome card.  In my mind, it was the performances by the three I mentioned above that really set the night apart.  The first fight I saw was Bonnar-Soszynski, with the Polish Experiment convincingly winning the first round.  After watching Bonnar eat some good shots from Krzysztof, I was certain that round two was going to be another beat down.  Soszynski came out aggressive and seemed to hurt Stephan early, but Bonnar managed to battle back, land some brutal knees, and win by TKO.  He showed a lot of grit and determination, putting on exactly the type of fight needed to stay in the UFC.

The Bonnar comeback was good, but the triangle that Leben sank in less than 30 seconds before the end of the fight was downright crazy.  I had Leben losing the first two rounds, and thought that defeat was imminent when Akiyama secured top position with little time left in the round.  Seeing as the Crippler hadn't submitted an opponent since 2005 (though he had already been pretty active off his back) I certainly didn't expect to see him submit Sexy, especially via triangle.  It brought back memories of the Tito Ortiz - Lyoto Machida fight at UFC 84, except Leben succeeded where Ortiz could not and avoided the likely decision loss.  Leben displayed an incredible unwillingness to accept defeat, showing a level of mental and physical toughness that most fighters can only aspire to.

And then, of course, was the main event.  I was one of many who were sure that Lesnar's wrestling would be the deciding factor against Shane Carwin.  But when Carwin stuffed the power double and then landed that uppercut, I thought it was over.  While I was amazed at how resilient Lesnar was on the ground, I had little hope for a win.  But when he managed to stand up after being on the receiving end of some solid GnP - Carwin bounced Brock's head off the canvas a few times and delivered some nasty elbows to the body - I only believed it to be a momentary reprieve.  As the round ended, I found myself thinking "what the f*** does it take to put this guy away?!"  Lesnar proved that he could take the best Shane Carwin had to give, and he would not be denied.  Such a barrage of punishment would have broken many a lesser fighter, but through sheer force of will Brock Lesnar persevered and managed to weather the storm.  He followed up by answering the bell with a smile and submitting a diminished, disheartened, and exhausted Carwin.

All three fights featured fast-paced, exciting, back and forth action between well-matched athletes.  If not for these three men possessing such impressive heart and will, the results could have been very different.  They must have been watching Galaxy Quest in the locker room; all three adhered to the classic Tim Allen adage: "Never give up, never surrender!"

                                                                                      via myfightteam.com

According to a post by Miller on the forums at myfightteam.com, he has signed on with Strikeforce to challenge Jake Shields for the Strikeforce Middleweight championship at an unspecified date.  He also stated that Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza has signed with Strikeforce, meaning another match-up between the two could be in the works.

Miller (22-6; 1 NC) last fought in June in a bout against Jacare ruled as a No Contest because of a cut caused by an illegal kick thrown by Miller.  Shields (23-4-1) won his most recent match against Robbie Lawler on June 6th via a guillotine choke in the first round.

Anderson Silva, widely recognized as one of the best pound-for-pound mixed-martial artists in the world, has only three fights left on his contract with the UFC.  Silva says that, after the UFC contract is up, he wants to have a boxing match against Roy Jones, Jr.  It appears that Silva feels he has something to prove, and is hellbent on out-boxing one of the all-time greats.  But after his time with the UFC is up and his bout with RJJ is done, there is one more mountain to climb that will prove Anderson Silva is the greatest mixed-martial artist we have ever seen: a showdown with the Last Emperor, Fedor Emelianenko.

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