Today, 13 years ago, on February 26, 2012, the UFC was a vastly different place.
Fighters from the WEC had started to be integrated in 2010 into the UFC and although Strikeforce had been purchased by Zuffa the fighters were not incorporated into the UFC roster.
The lightweight title picture was not being dominated by Dagestani’s, with Frankie Edgar holding the belt, going into the UFC 144 main event.
Frankie Edgar had beaten legend BJ Penn to gain the belt in a controversial decision before beating him again in the rematch. He then drew to Grey Maynard, before beating him in the rematch as well.
This meant, at the time, Edgar had the joint most successive title defences alongside his former foe BJ Penn.
UFC 144 was the UFC‘s fifth appearance in Japan, with it being at the Saitama Super Arena and their first event in Japan since UFC 29 in 2000.
In the co-main event, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson missed weight in his light heavyweight bout against Ryan Bader and got fined 20% of his fight purse.
Other fan favourites also featured on the card, with Mark Hunt and Anthony Petits both aiming to continue their winning streaks.
So, how did the fights pan out?
In the main event, Frankie Edgar got dethroned by Benson Henderson in a controversial title bout, which saw a rematch scheduled immediately after.
Two judges scored the fight 48-47 to Henderson with the other scoring it 49-46 for Edgar. The UFC president Dana White came out after the bout and said in the press conference he thought Edgar had done enough to retain his title.
On mmadescions.com seven out of nine media outlets scored the bout for Edgar with the other two scoring draws. Benson Henderson would put the rivalry to bed winning the rematch at UFC 150.
In the co-main event catchweight bout, at 211 lbs, Ryan Bader would use his wrestling to win a clear unanimous 30-27 against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson whose hopes of eventually regaining the light heavyweight title were squashed, going on to only have two more fights in the promotion before heading to Bellator.
Ryan Bader would lose his next bout being knocked out by Lyoto Machida in the second round, diminishing his title hopes as well, never reaching a title fight in the rest of his UFC career.
Mark Hunt, a fan favourite in Japan due to his day fighting in Pride, would not disappoint the crowd, knocking down Cheik Kongo with a flush right hook before finishing the fight with follow-up shots on the crowd.
For the “Super Samoan” this would be part of the best win streak he would put together in the UFC winning his next bout against Stefan Struve by KO, before bouncing up and down in the rankings, struggling to be consistent against the heavyweight elite.
Identical to Jackson, Cheick Kongo would have two more fights in the UFC before jumping ship over to Bellator, who unlike the previously mentioned Ryan Bader would never get his hands on the heavyweight belt but would win the heavyweight tournament in 2013.
Former Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields would get back into the win collum defeating Yoshihiro Akiyama in a dominant 30-27 unanimous decision.
Jake Shields would go on an impressive run winning two of his next three bouts including a win against future champion Tyrone Woodley. However, his time in the UFC would come to an end when he lost to Hector Lombard in 2014, with many believing his axe from the company had something to do with problems behind the scenes with Dana White explaining they “look at everything” when they cut a fighter.
Akiyama would have two more bouts in the promotion finishing his UFC career with a record of 2-6 seemingly having his best days in Dream and K-1.
In the first bout of the main card, Anthony Pettis would continue his hot streak that would eventually lead him to lightweight gold, against the winner of the main event Benson Henderson, knocking out Joe Lauzon with a stunning head kick that would knock Lauzon out cold.
This would be the first of three 1st round finishes for Pettis, beating Cerrone, then Henderson in round one as well, demonstrating why he had the nickname “Showtime”.
In the other bouts on the main card, Tim Boestch would win his third fight in a row, knocking out Yushin Okami in front of his home crowd.
In the only other bout on the main card, Hatsu Hioki would defeat Bart Palaszewski by unanimous decision, giving the Japanese crowd something to cheer about, being the only Japanese fighter to win on the main card.
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