UFC 112: Invincible

In another watershed moment for MMA’s leading promotion, the UFC hosted its first event at Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. It was the UFC’s first foray into the Middle East as well as its first outdoor event, in a stadium newly constructed especially for the promotion.

UFC 112 featured a triple-play of stars: a Middleweight Championship fight between Anderson Silva and Demian Maia; a Lightweight Championship fight between BJ Penn and Frankie Edgar; and a Welterweight 3-rounder between legends Matt Hughes and Renzo Gracie. Edgar shocked the world by winning a controversial Unanimous Decision to take the belt from Penn, and Hughes finished the ring-rusty Gracie with a series of punishing leg kicks. But then, just when it seemed the high-risk, high-profile event would go off without a hitch, 185lb. champion Anderson Silva hijacked the affair, putting on the most controversial and roundly criticized performance of his career by first taunting and then entirely disengaging from Maia over the course of five rounds. During his fight, the crowd alternated between chants of “Maia,” and “GSP,” in protest of Silva’s in-cage antics.

Following the event, a furious UFC President Dana White stated that he considered UFC 112 to be the most embarrassing event the company had ever put on, and claimed that, should Silva conduct himself in a similar manner ever again, he would be cut from the promotion, win or lose.