Last night at UFC 132 fans were treated to an early display of fireworks as the fighters of the UFC put on one of the better cards in recent memory. The card took place in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Cruz, Faber, Condit, and Ortiz all earn $75,000 Bonuses

UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber picked up “Fight of the Night” for their exciting bantamweight title fight last night. The fight was a perfect display of Cruz’s speed versus Faber’s power. In the end, speed proved victorious as Cruz picked up unanimous decision victory over the former WEC featherweight champion.

With the win, Cruz avenged his only loss and set up a possible rubber match down the line with Faber.

Carlos Condit picked up the most contentious bonus of the night by picking up “Knockout of the Night” honors with his victory over Dong Hyun Kim. Condit showed his progress as a fighter with his sweep of the black belt judoka after a throw before unloading on Kim with a flying knee and follow up strikes. Kim was too predictable with his head movement and hand placement, which gave Condit the  timing he needed to knock out the Korean prospect.

Tito Ortiz proved he still has some fight in him with an emphatic upset win over TUF 8 winner Ryan Bader. The performance also picked up “Submission of the Night” for Ortiz as well. While the award may have been a de facto choice, the finish would have likely still picked up honors had there been more submissions on the card. Ortiz took advantage of Bader’s poor hand placement and landed a tight uppercut which floored the former Arizona State wrestler, Ortiz followed up with strikes before landing a crushing guillotine choke. The win was Ortiz’s first since October of 2006, when he defeated Ken Shamrock at the UFC’s “Ortiz versus Shamrock 3″ fightcard.

Dana White on Wanderlei Silva “proably the end of the road”

UFC President Dana White was asked about the future of former PRIDE champion and MMA legend Wanderlei Silva after his knockout loss to Chris Leben and had this to say.

“People love him so much because of the way he fights and his style and the type of person he is, but yeah, (it’s) probably the end of the road for Wanderlei. People knew that [Silva] and Leben were going to come out and they were going to throw until somebody fell down, and it was Wanderlei tonight.”

White elaborated more on that with MMAJunkie:

“I think it’s one of those ones where I’d like to sit down and talk to him and kind of Chuck Liddell him into it, I think the guy has nothing left to prove. He’s a warrior. People love him all over the world, and I just don’t want to see that happen to him anymore.”

If it is the end of Wanderlei Silva’s career, it would be a fitting end as Silva went out there and fought with the same intensity and reckless abandon that launched him into MMA stardom. The former PRIDE champion’s reign of terror from 2000 to 2004 is one of the great runs in MMA history. Wanderlei’s manic style earned the nicknames of “Mad Dog” and “The Axe Murderer” but in the end, it was that same style that led to his decline as a fighter.

Other News and Notes from the Post-Fight Press Conference

• Attendence was 12,947 with a live gate of $2.3 million
• Carlos Condit stated that while he wants a shot at the winner of Nick Diaz and UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, he would like to fight again before the end of the year.
• Melvin Guillard offered a rematch to Dennis Siver hoping to get on UFC 136 in Guillard’s hometown of Houston. Their first fight marked the end of Siver’s first run in the UFC as he lost to Guillard by TKO in 2008. Siver has gone 8-1 since that fight and Guillard has gone 6-1. The German-speaking Siver clearly did not understand Guillard and did not respond.
• Guillard also said he would also love to face Jim Miller in Houston and would only face teammate Clay Guida if one of them had the belt.
• Tito Ortiz stated he would like a third match with Forrest Griffin

Pictured: Tito Ortiz courtesy of UFC.com