UFC 56 was a combination of bad fights and big news. In fact, the big news coming out of the event actually overshadowed anything that happened in the octagon as UFC reveals itself as being closer to pro wrestling than many people involved with MMA would care to admit.

After the first fight of the night, Dana White entered the octagon and announced that Chuck Liddell would be defending the Light-Heavyweight title against Randy Couture. This will be the rubber match between the two. White then announced Frank Mir has returned from injury. Mir instantly becomes the favourite to face Andrei Arlovski in 2006 for the heavyweight title that he never lost in the ring. White also announced the return of BJ Penn, another former champ (welterweight) who never lost his belt in the ring.

But the biggest news was the dual return of bothKen Shamrock and Tito Ortiz to the UFC at the same time. Actually that wasn't even the biggest news. Beyond that is the fact that Tito Ortiz will be facing TUF 1 champ Forrest Griffin in his first bout in the UFC in a year. Actually that wasn't even the biggest news, believe it or not. Ken Shamrock and Tito Ortiz will also be the coaches of season three of The Ultimate Fighter, and will meet in a rematch of their then-box office record setting fight from UFC 40 after the TUF 3 season finishes.

Both Tito and Ken are under three fight deals. If Tito defeats Forrest Griffin and Shamrock, he will likely get a rematch against the winner of Liddell-Couture for the Light-Heavyweight title. Ortiz is almost a lock to defeat Shamrock, and he has better than even odds of defeating Forrest Griffin.

Shamrock-Ortiz should mean big business, even though the fight is realistically a year too late. Tito was offered the fight against Ken in the main event of the first Ultimate Fighter Finale, a position that eventually went to Rich Franklin (who destroyed Shamrock quickly). That booking looked bad then and it looks worse now, since Shamrock got destroyed when UFC should have been protecting him, especially now that his aged feud with Tito will be expected to draw big ratings and a big pay per view buyrate when the rematch happens.

The weltweight situation is a little more murky. Georges St Pierre, BJ Penn and Karo Parisyan all have rights to the next title shot against Matt Hughes. Penn defeated Hughes in his last UFC fight and is the linear champion. Parisyan should have gotten his title shot at UFC 56 but was injured. St-Pierre has been dominant against top competition and nearly beat Hughes the first time they fought. A decent scenario would have Hughes defending against St Pierre with BJ Penn getting the winner, or the reverse, with Hughes defending against Penn with St-Pierre getting the winner. Parisyan may have to wait a bit.

Hughes was one of two main events for UFC 56, the first show for both he and Rich Franklin coming off season two of The Ultimate Fighter. Hughes was originally booked to defend his belt against Parisyan. Karo, however, pulled out of the fight with a leg injury sustained in training. So he was replaced by Joe Riggs. Riggs, a heavy welterweight who had his first fight in that division against Chris Lytle just a little awhile ago, could not make weight, coming in at 172 pounds. The fight was allowed to continue but as a non-title match.

It was a bad match on paper for Riggs, although he had little to lose and lots to gain. Early in the fight Hughes looked better standing up than I had expected. He took Riggs down and was able to work quickly towards a kimura despite the fact that Riggs had him in half-guard. Hughes scored the submission and the victory, not surprising.

In the other main event, Rich Franklin defeated Nate Quarry with a brutal knockout. Quarry was challenging for the middleweight belt, but like Riggs he was moved up to the spot too quickly after UFC fired top contender Matt Lindland over sponsorship issues and both Ivan Salaverry and Nathan Marquardt put on a terrible performance on Spike TV earlier this year. Quarry is a good striker, but Franklin was beyond out of his league in terms of skill. Franklin destroyed Quarry with a vicious left hand. Quarry ended up stiff as a board and was knocked out right away. He looked dead. It was the second knock down of the fight for Franklin within two and a half minutes. The fight was over in less than three minutes.

OTHER RESULTS:

Nick Thompson defeated Keith Wisniewski via unanimous decision. This match took place before the pay per view began.

Thiago Alves stopped Ansar Chalangov at 2:25. This is Alves' second win in the UFC. This fight took place before the pay per view.

Sam Hoger submitted Jeff Newton with a rear naked choke at 2:05 of the second round. Important win for Hoger to keep him on track in the UFC. Newton has heavy knockout power which he has displayed in the past in King of the Cage. He had not fought in a long while before this match, though. This also took placed before the pay per view.

Jeremy Horn defeated Trevor Prangley via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28). The crowd booed the judges' decision. Horn said after the fight he thought Prangley had won. It was a slow fight. Horn won the first round nearly submitting Prangley with a guillotine choke. Prangley controlled the rest of the fight by taking Horn, who is a terrible wrestler, down and laying in Horn's guard. In the brief stand-up action Horn displayed his excellent defense drawing back on his endless in-ring experience. I felt Prangley won rounds two and three. Eddie Bravo gave the second round to Horn; presumably so did the judges. I feel Prangley won the second round based on the cuts on Horn's face from the Prangley g'n'p. Prangley may have officially lost the decision but seems to have won points with everyone else besides the judges who saw this fight. Another disappointment from Horn although this was a tough match for him on paper.

Georges St Pierre stopped Sean Sherk at 2:51 of round two. St Pierre again looked incredible. This guy is one of the most talented fighters on the planet. Sherk is one of the best takedown artists at 170-pounds and has a frame totally designed for freestyle wrestling. Despite that, St-Pierre was able to completely avoid the takedown and in fact took Sherk down and pounded him to close round one. St Pierre did much of the same in round two, and was able to stop Sherk and seemingly break his nose with a flurry of punches and elbows. St-Pierre's reach advantage also gave Sherk problems during stand-up. St Pierre got on his knees after the fight and asked UFC for a title shot. Total Domination. Unreal talent.

Gabriel Gonzaga knocked out Kevin Jordan at 4:39 of round three. This was Gonzaga's UFC debut, and what a terrible debut it was. Jordan was brought back based on his performance in a losing effort against Paul Buentello earlier this year. Gonzaga controlled the first round, taking Jordan down and mounting him. The second and third rounds were ridiculously bad. Both guys circled each other and did nothing for the rest of the fight. Crowd was royally pissed. Herb Dean had to step in and admonish these two guys near the end of the second round for the inaction. However, it continued in the third round. This was largely Jordan's fight, because Gonzaga is primarily a groundfighter and he was gassed in the second round. Jordan should have been able to push the pace in the second round, but clearly did not have the cardio to do so. Gonzaga came up with a knockout punch out of nowhere in the final thiry seconds of the match. Worst fight of the year. Neither of these guys should be brought back.

Jeremy Wall can be contacted at mmachronicle@hotmail.com

Source: MaxFighting.com