Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has closed out another groundbreaking mixed martial arts (MMA) event, as UFC 139: "Shogun vs. Henderson" this past Saturday night (Nov. 19, 2011) brought the fans in attendance at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California, some of the most exciting fights we've seen all year.
The main event, Mauricio Rua vs. Dan Henderson, left the MMA world ablaze and had some fans proclaiming it to one of the finest fights in the history of the sport.
We saw one fight that some complained was stopped too early. We also saw a fight (between Chris Weidman and Tom Lawlor) that clearly was not stopped soon enough.
UFC 139 was packed to the gills with legends fighting to survive, top prospects looking to rise to the next level and fights that will be replayed for years to come.
After the jump, MMAmania.com takes a look back on the highlights that made UFC 139 one of the best MMA events of all time:
Coming off the inaugural UFC on Fox 1 event, the hype machine was a little low on "fuel." For this reason, the main event of UFC 139 may have flown under the radar.
Dan Henderson and Mauricio Rua are MMA pioneers. They've done everything. They've fought everyone and everywhere. Yet, somehow, before Saturday night, the two had never faced each other.
All of that changed as "Hendo" and "Shogun" finally took to the Octagon together, giving fans a show that will forever live in the loving memories of all those who witnessed it.
Each fighter was sure they were winner. UFC President Dana White felt it should have been a draw. Ultimately, the judges' scorecard showed Henderson to be the winner by unanimous decision.
Read a full recap of the Mauricio Rua vs. Dan Henderson fight at UFC 139 here.
The close decision left many to speculate as to what the future will hold for both fighters. Afterwards, Dana White was non-committal on the matter, stating that he believes Henderson could contend for either the 185-pound or 205-pound titles, depending on which he preferred.
Neither fighter was able to attend the post-fight press conference, as they were both forced to visit the local hospital to have their wounds attended to.
Watch the full "Shogun vs. Henderson" post-fight press conference video here.
The co-main event saw two more MMA legends collide as Wanderlei Silva looked to rebound from a tough knockout loss at UFC 132 to Chris Leben. His opponent, Cung Le, was making his UFC debut, after taking almost a year and a half off from fighting to pursue acting opportunities.
The fight went almost entirely as scripted. Le used his renowned martial arts skills and fancy kicks to keep "The Axe Murderer" on his heels for much of the first round.
But you can't keep "Wandy" moving backwards forever.
In the second round, Silva began to stalk Le, unloading on him with flurries of vicious combinations. It was only a matter of time before Le's face was hardly distinguishable.
Silva was able to notch an impressive second round TKO victory and bought himself and his career a little more time.
For a full recap with detailed analysis on the "Wanderlei Silva vs. Cung Le" fight, click here.
World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) veterans Urijah Faber and Brian Bowles had it out in a number one contender eliminator match that saw "The California Kid" return to his form of old.
Bowles was simply no match for Faber and his arsenal of weapons as he fell prey to a guillotine choke in the second round that forced him to tap.
Faber will now move on to get the trilogy fight against current Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz that he has loudly been requesting.
For an in-depth summary of the "Urijah Faber vs. Brian Bowles" fight, click here.
In the bonus department, Dana White mixed things up a bit by doling out the "fight of the night" award to two fights instead of the usual one. "Mauricio Rua vs. Dan Henderson" and "Wanderlei Silva vs. Cung Le" received the prestigious honors.
the "Submission of the Night" bonus went to Urijah Faber. "Knockout of the Night" was awarded to Michael McDonald, whose quick KO of Alex Soto made a statement heard loud and clear all over the MMA community.
It doesn't have to end there. We want to hear your favorite fond memories from UFC 139.
For complete UFC 139 results and a detailed recap of all the action click here. To check out a recap of the UFC 139 prelim fights that were seen Spike TV, click here and here. Want to know what happened with the UFC 139 Facebook Prelims portion of the card? To read a full recap click here.
And just in case you want to get up to speed on the entire UFC 139 fight card from top to bottom click here.
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