To call the results of UFC 162 shocking may be an understatement.
Considering we saw one of the greatest upsets in the history of MMA, “monumental” may be a better word.
With just one punch, Chris Weidman rocked the entire UFC middleweight division by becoming the first man in UFC history to defeat Anderson Silva. Weidman stopped “The Spider” in the second round.
The 185-pound class isn’t the only one that saw a big shakeup. The card offered results that are sure to have a long-term impact on the title picture in multiple divisions. Here are the fights that will make things interesting in their division as we look beyond Saturday night’s action.
Can You Hear Cub Swanson Knocking?
Cub Swanson just keeps getting better every time out.
The former WEC contender showed off his cardio and ability to finish fights by scoring a third-round TKO victory over veteran Dennis Siver on the pay-per-view card.
Siver had been unbeaten at 145 pounds.
After losing to fellow featherweight title contender Ricardo Lamas in November 2011, Swanson has been on a five-fight win streak that has him on top of the featherweight title picture.
The 29-year-old defeated Dustin Poirier, Ross Pearson and George Roop, and he even beat Charles Oliveira more impressively than Frankie Edgar did on Saturday night.
With Lamas currently waiting on a fight, a rematch between the two to determine the next title contender at featherweight may be in order.
Barboza Becomes Prime Candidate for Leap up Rankings
Edson Barboza came into his UFC 162 fight against Rafaello Oliveira unranked in the UFC’s official lightweight rankings. After dominating another overmatched opponent, that has to change.
The 27-year-old Brazilian would have had a great case for Knockout of the Night if not for one Chris Weidman in the main event. Barboza brutalized Oliveira with leg kick after leg kick until the ref had to call the fight for the rare leg-kick TKO.
As Jeremy Botter of Bleacher Report noted, it wasn’t pretty.
Barboza has everything you’d like to see in a rising star. He’s explosive—as evidenced by the fact that he won a fight almost entirely on leg kicks—he wins (he’s now 6-1 in the UFC), and perhaps most importantly, he’s entertaining.
He failed to win any post-fight bonuses this time around, but he’s a three-time Fight of the Night winner and holds a Knockout of the Night.
The lightweight division got another serious player on Saturday night.
Chris Weidman Opens the Floodgates in the Middleweight Division
For a long time, middleweight contenders were essentially fighting just to see who was the second-best fighter in the division.
Now, the division heads into uncharted territory. The last time that the weight class had a champion not named Anderson Silva was 2006.
With all due respect to Weidman, who fought a tremendous fight and legitimately beat a fighter who remains near the top of pound-for-pound rankings, contenders have to feel that winning the title is a much more attainable goal now.
Michael Bisping was the first to take to Twitter to ask for a shot against the newly crowned champion.
Fighters like Vitor Belfort, Chael Sonnen and Yushin Okami—who all had to overcome the hurdle of marketing rematches with Silva after losing—now have much better odds of getting a shot at the title with a new champion.
Silva fended off the top challengers in the middleweight division. Now there is a whole lineup of challengers who will be looking to give the “All-American” his first loss.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com