In the hours after Carlos Condit's close but unanimous decision win over Nick Diaz at UFC 143, UFC president Dana White seemed to warm up to the possibility of a rematch between the two. After all, it may be nine months or more until division champion Georges St-Pierre returns to fight the interim champion, a lengthy wait.

But at least for now, the Condit camp seems uninterested in the possibility of Condit-Diaz II. On Monday afternoon, his manager Malki Kawa told MMA Fighting that the new interim champion would be much more likely to set his sights on unifying the interim and linear titles.

"At this point, [a rematch] is not something we’re looking to do," he said. "We're looking for Georges. People forget, Carlos waited a long time to get this fight. He was moved around, and shuffled around between fights. He won the fight. It doesn't interest us at all. I think clearly and decisively, he won the fight. Even [UFC president] Dana [White] scored it for him. All of the opinions that matter scored Carlos as winner."

In addition to pointing out the unanimous judges' decision as well as White's opinion, Kawa noted that fight statistics showed Condit out-landing Diaz. FightMetric stats had Condit landing 159 total strikes, and Diaz landing 117.

"It was a performance that was excellent," Kawa said. "He picked apart a very formidable fighter. Two judges saw it four rounds to one, and one saw it three to two. The fact that he didn't stand and bang with him? I'm sorry, not every fighter has to do that. He did what he had to do, and that goes to show me that this guy is mature, he's fighting fights that are smart.

"People are like, 'Oh, Carlos is not a finisher,'" he continued. "The guy threw how many spinning elbows? How many spinning back fists? He threw a flying knee. He tried to finish Nick Diaz when the time and the opening was there. I can't find a flaw in his performance."

Even in defeat, Diaz managed to steal the spotlight from Condit by saying he would retire due to his frustration with the judging. Kawa said that was no concern of Condit's, whose only goal has been to be the champion.

After a six-month training cycle due to various opponent switches, Condit will take some time off before he finalizes his next move.

"Carlos is a fighter," Kawa said. "At the end of the day, this is not a guy who wants to sit around and wait. He wants to fight. You never know. Right now, the idea is that we want Georges St-Pierre. The goal is to fight Georges St-Pierre. He wants to be the best in the world, so that's the fight that interests us at this moment."

And as for a rematch first?

For now, forget it. Though it's ultimately Condit's decision, his manager and advisor isn't keen on it.

"The fans disagree [with the decision] because they got hyped up to see Nick & Georges fight each other," Kawa said. "Well, let them fight each other. We’ve moved on."

Nick Diaz earned a reported salary of $200,000 for his fight against Carlos Condit at UFC 143 this past Saturday in Las Vegas, according to the Nevada athletic commission.

Condit, who defeated Diaz for the UFC interim welterweight title, on paper made $55,000 as his show purse and a $55,000 bonus for the win.

Please note that salaries reported by the UFC to the commission do not necessarily reflect a fighter's actual earnings, once other possible bonuses (such as a cut of the pay-per-view for big stars) and sponsorship money is factored in.

Salaries for the rest of the fighters are below. Additionally, Werdum, Nelson, Thompson and Poirier each earned a $65,000 bonus at the post-fight press conference.

Pay-Per-View Bouts
Carlos Condit ($55,000 + $55,000 = $110,000) def. Nick Diaz ($200,000)
Fabricio Werdum ($100,000 + no win bonus) def. Roy Nelson ($20,000)
Josh Koscheck ($73,000 + $73,000 = $146,000) def. Mike Pierce ($20,000)
Renan Barao ($11,000 + $11,000 = $22,000) def. Scott Jorgensen ($20,500)
Ed Herman ($31,000 + $31,000 = $62,000) def. Clifford Starks ($8,000)

Preliminary Bouts
Dustin Poirier ($12,000 + $12,000 = $24,000) def. Max Hollaway ($6,000)
Edwin Figueroa ($8,000 + $8,000 = $16,000) def. Alex Caceres ($8,000)
Matt Brown ($15,000+$15,000 = $30,000) def. Chris Cope ($8,000)
Matt Riddle ($15,000 + $15,000 = $30,000) def. Henry Martinez ($6,000)
Rafael Natal ($10,000 + $10,000 = $20,000) def. Michael Kuiper ($6,000)
Stephen Thompson ($6,000+$6,000 = $12,000) def. Dan Stittgen ($6,000)

UFC 143 delivered everything from brutal finishes to narrow decisions, with post-fight demonstrations that ranged from awesomely acrobatic to jaw-droppingly bizarre. Now that we’ve all had some time to think it over and gorge ourselves on Super Bowl snacks, it’s time to sift through the rubble for our biggest winners, losers, and everything in between.

Biggest Winner: Carlos Condit
The blood-and-guts crowd might not like how he did it, but Condit’s strategy was brilliant and disciplined. He avoided the tight exchanges against the fence that Diaz spent the whole fight working for, and he refused to be baited into a street fight. He came in with the perfect plan for negating Diaz’s offense, and unlike many of his predecessors, Condit actually stuck to it. He beat the former Strikeforce champ with nearly flawless execution of a superior, though not necessarily popular strategy. Now he’s the UFC interim champ, which means he gets a belt that’s only slightly more meaningful than the one Chael Sonnen walked around Chicago with. He also gets the ire of the fans who think any strategy that doesn’t include standing in one place and swinging from your heels is somehow unfair or undignified. If he decides to wait until GSP is healthy before he fights again, Condit will get the chance to remedy both those problems in one night. Don’t be surprised if winning over the fans proves to be a lot easier than winning the real belt.

Biggest Loser: Georges St-Pierre
I’ll admit it: this is partly because I can’t think of anyone on this excellent fight card who really deserves to be called a loser. Most of the guys who were literal losers on the night still fought hard and performed well, so let’s cut them slack and focus instead on GSP, who lost something almost as valuable as a title shot on Saturday night. When Diaz lost the decision and declared his intention to take his gloves and go home forever, St-Pierre lost a rival and a nemesis. He lost the chance to face the one person who he seemed to genuinely want to beat up. Now what? He’s supposed to fight Condit, who he has no strong feelings about either way, and who will almost certainly not flip him the bird at any point before, during, or after the fight? That’s no fun. Not for fans, and probably not for GSP, whose passion for the sport seems to be waning just a tad. Diaz provoked some of his old bully-fighting feelings. He stoked the champ’s competitive fire and made him feel like he needed to be ready to fight in a hotel elevator. Now St-Pierre has lost all that, and without ever getting a say in the matter.

Most Surprising: Fabricio Werdum
Are we sure this is the same guy whose stand-up game consisted primarily of flopping onto his back just eight months ago? Against Nelson, it was as if Werdum had been born again as a kickboxer with lethal knees. You add that to his existing jiu-jitsu skills, and suddenly you have a serious heavyweight contender. Werdum seems uncomfortable being hit, and he’s perhaps a little too quick to go to his back, but this win makes it clear that the big Brazilian is still improving. It also makes you wonder if he might still be in that heavyweight Grand Prix if he’d come into the Alistair Overeem fight with this sort of confidence in his striking game. On second thought, nevermind. It worked out better this way.

Least Impressive in Victory: Josh Koscheck
His split decision victory over Mike Pierce was a lot harder to come by than Koscheck seemed to think it would be. Pierce stalled his offense against the fence, turning the fight into a slow battle for takedowns and position. Normally that’s the kind of fight Koscheck excels in, but this one was a struggle. It was also a risk, since that decision could have easily gone the other way. Koscheck wrote a lot of it off to a lack of motivation for this fight, which is somewhat understandable. After fighting GSP and Matt Hughes, how do you get up for a fight with Mike Pierce? Then again, that’s his job. That’s what the money is for. If he can’t look within himself and find the drive necessary to put on a quality performance, maybe 20 UFC fights is just a few too many.

Most Impressive in Defeat: Roy Nelson
It wasn’t exactly a display of technical brilliance on "Big Country’s" part, but it was another demonstration of his toughness. Some of those knees from Werdum would have decapitated a normal man. Maybe it was Nelson’s magical beard that helped protect him, or maybe he just has a harder head than most. Whatever the reason, he took everything Werdum had and gave some back when he got the chance. It’s clear now that Nelson will probably never be championship material in the UFC, but how can you not want to see this guy fight? He doesn’t break, doesn’t quit, and doesn’t give opponents anything they didn’t earn. This is a man who’s making his money the hard way in the UFC. Fans will keep showing up to watch him do it for as long as he can keep it up.

Most in Need of a Bigger Fight: Renan Barao
Every time we see him he looks more and more like a top contender at bantamweight. After smashing Brad Pickett, this was supposed to be the fight that would test his takedown defense against a quality wrestler. Unfortunately for Scott Jorgensen, it didn’t turn out to be much of a test at all. Barao cruised to win and looked great doing it, so what’s next? 135-pound champ Dominick Cruz still has business with Urijah Faber, so a title shot isn’t in the cards just yet. Maybe the best Barao can do is keep on keeping on against whoever the UFC can convince to step in there with him. After his last two performances, you can bet there aren’t a whole lot of bantamweights volunteering for the job.

Most in Need of an Attitude Adjustment: Nick Diaz
It’s understandable to be angry about a decision like that. It was a close fight, the kind that both guys will go to their graves thinking they deserved to win, and you knew as they stood there waiting for the call that someone was going home in a huff. But when the call doesn’t go your way, how you react tells us a lot about your character. Diaz didn’t just whine and complain about the decision, which would have been somewhat justifiable under the circumstances. Instead, he whined, complained, and then quit, right on the spot. Time will tell if that decision sticks (I’m betting he’ll be back before the year is out), but regardless, it’s an incredibly immature way to react. That’s how an eight-year-old reacts when you beat him at a video game. It’s not how a grown man and a professional athlete should react. But Diaz’s post-fight remarks, as bizarre as they were, were perfectly consistent with how he’s handled adversity throughout his career. Whenever something goes wrong, there’s always someone else to blame. Nothing that happens to Nick Diaz is ever Nick Diaz’s fault. He’s always at the mercy of powerful forces outside his control, and those forces are engaged in a constant effort to bring him down. If anything, the opposite is true. Diaz thinks he doesn’t "need this [expletive]"? The people around him -- from the UFC to his obsessively loyal fans to his own team -- have put up with more [expletive] from him than they would from anyone else, and all because he’s a great fighter. If he wants to pay them back by quitting when things don’t go his way, that’s up to him. But he might quickly find that people are a lot less eager to put up with the same [expletive] from a retired, self-pitying fighter who refuses to take responsibility for his own actions and reactions.

Most Exciting Newcomer: Stephen Thompson
Our own Mike Chiappetta tried to tell you that this guy was worth keeping an eye on, but you wouldn’t listen. Not until he knocked out Dan Stittgen with an unbelievable head kick and then followed it up with a post-fight celebration worthy of a Tekken character. Time will tell if he can pull off moves like that against tougher competition, but when you follow up a bonus-worthy knockout by sticking the landing in your celebratory acrobatics, you’ve got reason to be satisfied with your UFC debut.

Most Controversial: Herb Dean’s two-point deduction
Let me get this straight: you accidentally kick a guy in the groin once, that’s a warning. You kick him twice, you lose one point for each damaged testicle? I’m not sure I understand why referee Herb Dean decided to take two points from Alex Caceres after the second low blow to Edwin Figueroa. Was it because the second one seemed especially egregious? Or because it made a sound like a racquetball exploding? Dean didn’t seem convinced that Caceres was doing it on purpose, so what explains the extra point deduction? When we start asking these questions, we quickly get into a discussion about what should and shouldn’t be at the referee’s discretion. At the moment, MMA has an almost comically vague approach to fouls. The first time you commit one, we tell you to knock it off. Unless it results in the end of the fight, in which case you’re disqualified. If it doesn’t end the fight, and if you continue to commit the same foul, then maybe you’ll lose a point. Maybe you’ll lose two. Maybe you’ll just get several more warnings, but maybe the tone of those warnings will get very, very serious. If you commit one foul and then commit a different one later on, the whole system of escalating warnings generally starts all over again. Under the current system, too much is left up to an individual referee to decide on the spot. It’s like asking a football referee whether that hold was really deserving of a ten-yard penalty, or whether we could let them off with seven, just this once. Especially in a sport where contests might last the full allotted time or might be over in ten seconds, there’s too much incentive to go ahead and commit a foul and hope that it doesn’t cost you. Most of the time it doesn’t. Jose Aldo grabs the fence to avoid a Chad Mendes takedown (and nobody has ever, in the history of MMA, accidentally grabbed the fence) and the verbal warning is rendered meaningless when he scores a knockout moments later. Caceres accidentally kicks a guy in the pills twice (a painful foul, but not necessarily an intentional one) and it ends up costing him two points. You never know for sure what the third man in the cage will do. Not until he’s done it, and then it’s too late.

After a wild night in Las Vegas for UFC 143, the MMA Wrap-Up returns to examine Nick Diaz's post-fight retirement speech and ask: is this guy for a real? Have we truly seen the last of Stockton's favorite son, and all because he didn't like the way the judges scored his fight? Seriously?

As you can probably tell, the Wrap-Up has some strong opinions on the subject.

The MMA Hour is back in your life on Monday with another loaded show. Here's who will be stopping by:

* Diego Sanchez will discuss his UFC on FUEL TV 1 fight against Jake Ellenberger on Feb. 15.

* Greg Jackson will discuss Carlos Condit's win over Nick Diaz.

* Cesar Gracie will explain why he thinks Diaz deserved to win the UFC 143 main event.

* Jason "Mayhem" Miller will discuss what's next for him and look back at UFC 143's main event between Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit.

* Dave Herman will preview his UFC on FUEL TV 1 fight against Stefan Struve.

* And MMAFighting.com's Ben Fowlkes will look back at UFC 143.

Got a question or comment? Give us a call at 1-888-418-4074.

Watch the show live below beginning at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT. Subscribe to The MMA Hour on iTunes: audio feed here; video feed here. Download previous episodes here. Listen to the show via Stitcher here.

Well, that was an interesting weekend. While the rest of the sports world was whipped into a Super Bowl frenzy, the mixed martial arts community was still decidedly abuzz from UFC 143's polarizing main event. Plenty of fallout arrived amid Diaz vs. Condit, so catch up on everything you might have missed and everything you need to see on today's edition of the Morning Report.

5 MUST-READ STORIES TO START YOUR DAY:

Dana White believes Carlos Condit deserved to win. Ariel Helwani and the UFC President discuss whether the judges made the right call, before being interrupted by a shirtless Mike Goldberg.

Judges' scorecards from Carlos Condit vs. Nick Diaz. Take a look at how the three ringside judges -- including fan-favorite Cecil Peoples -- scored the action, round-by-round.

UFC 143 morning after: Condit has what it takes to beat St. Pierre. Michael David Smith weighs-in with his thoughts from Saturday night, from Condit vs. GSP, to Kim Winslow's perfect stoppage.

Video of the new UFC intro. Catch a replay of the new pay-per-view lead-in video that cost an "obscene amount of money," according to Dana White.

Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen agree to UFC title rematch. Lost amongst the judging hysteria was the fact that the one of the UFC's most anticipated rematches has officially been set.

THIS WEEKEND'S MEDIA GUMBO:

Relieve Saturday's action with this Fox Sports highlight package.

<a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/video?videoid=66439c02-61fb-4e03-96f8-fd0adcf3c2e9&amp;src=FLPl:embed::uuids" target="_new" title="Highlights: UFC 143">Video: Highlights: UFC 143</a>

This man clearly did not agree with Sensei Cecil Peoples. (HT: Bloody Elbow)

With that out of the way, afford yourself a look ahead at UFC 144, featuring fighters so strong they knock the pigment off their opponent.

Somewhere, Stephen Thompson is smiling. (HT: Bloody Elbow)

Carlos Condit's other, more tangible prize for beating Nick Diaz. (via Kevin Iole)

Surprised she didn't armbar her.

I don't think Japan is ready for a second dose of Rampage.

Anyone else holding out for "RESPECT THE VADGE!" to become the female version of "Don't be scared homie?"

Miguel Torres gets it.

FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Here's what was announced over the weekend (Friday, Feb. 3, 2012 - Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012):

• UFC on Fox 3: Louis Gaudinot (5-2) vs. John Lineker (19-5)
• UFC on FX 3: Brandon Vera (12-5, 1 NC) out with injury, Thiago Silva (14-2, 1 NC) expected to receive new opponent
• UFC on Fuel TV 1: Yoislandy Izquierdo (6-0) out, Tim Means (16-3-1) in against Bernardo Magalhaes (11-1)
• Bellator 63: War Machine (12-4) out, Chris Lozano (9-2) in against Karl Amoussou (13-4-2)
• Tachi Palace Fights 12: Casey Olson (13-3) vs. Cody Gibson (5-2)

FANPOST OF THE DAY:

Today's FPOTD belongs to MMA Mania reader Wooly Shambler: As the "Godfather of MMA," how proud would Bruce Lee be of what MMA is today?

Referred to as the godfather of MMA , Bruce Lee envisioned martial arts as truly becoming mixed. He felt that at the pinnacle of martial arts one should "be like water," meaning fluid and able to adapt instantly around an object or obstacle. While alive and teaching these beliefs he was met with strong opposition from many masters and disciples of the old guard. Bruce was challenged and scoffed at for believing that not one single martial art or form was best or sufficient. It seems however that not only through his demonstrations and victories, in both form and film, but also in the evolution of martial arts after his death that Bruce was right.

DON'T FORGET to follow @MMAFighting on Twitter and 'like' us on Facebook.

Found something informative, entertaining, brutal, or just plain bizarre for the Morning Report? Hit me at @shaunalshatti and we'll include it in tomorrow's post.

Judging by Nick Diaz’s reaction to his unanimous decision loss to Carlos Condit at UFC 143, you’d have thought he’d just been robbed on live TV. You’d have thought he’d returned home to find that judge Cecil Peoples had made off with all his most prized possessions, from his road bike to his Tupac CDs. You definitely wouldn’t have thought that he’d merely lost a close decision in a close fight, though that’s exactly what happened.

"I don't need this [expletive]," Diaz told Joe Rogan after the decision was announced. "He ran from me this whole fight. I landed the harder shots. He kicked me in the leg with little baby kicks."

Of course, he said this while sporting a set of facial bruises and lacerations that told a very different story. You don’t get that kind of damage at a track meet. Obviously Condit must have been doing something besides running and baby-kicking. According to the FightMetric stats, that something was out-working Diaz with strikes in four of the five rounds, landing a total of 159 strikes to Diaz’s 117.

Granted, stats don’t always tell the full story with an MMA bout. Condit did spend a considerable amount of time avoiding Diaz, or at least ducking out of the way and getting the fight back to the center of the cage. If you’re of the opinion that no fighter should ever win a decision while backpedaling -- even if he’s landing more strikes in the process --- then sure, you could cry foul over the decision. Just know that you’re using your own made-up criteria to judge the fight, not the one that matters.

According to the unified rules of MMA, judges score bouts based on "effective striking, effective grappling, control of the fighting area, effective aggressiveness and defense." Nowhere in there does it say you can’t back up or circle away. Nowhere does it say that you have to let a guy like Diaz walk you down and unload on you against the cage. Condit clearly didn’t want to get stuck with his back to the fence, where Diaz is most effective, so he continually brought the fight back to the center, where he was more effective.

In other words, Condit fought the smart fight. He also fought the slightly busier fight, at least according to the numbers. While it might have looked like Diaz was far more aggressive, if only because he walked forward in a straight line for most of the fight, Condit actually threw more strikes (329 to 258, according to Fight Metric) and landed more significant strikes (151 to 105). You can accuse him of running away if you want, but, like Diaz, you’d have to ignore the obvious evidence to the contrary, which plenty of fans are no doubt willing to do.

Maybe part of the problem here is expectations. Many people (Diaz included, perhaps) thought this was going to be a brawl. They expected to see two guys standing toe-to-toe, chopping away at each other until somebody fell. They didn’t get that fight, even though Diaz did his best to deliver it, and so they naturally blame the guy who decided to pursue a game plan rather than the guy who was unable to adjust to it.

It’s easy to see why Diaz wanted the kind of flat-footed, close-up boxing match that he was pressing for all night. He’s good at that style. He might be better at it than anyone in MMA -- certainly better than Condit. That’s why it only made sense for Condit to stay on the move, to force Diaz to reset and start his attack over. And while Diaz was doing that, Condit hit him. He ducked under hooks, stayed out of range of those long jabs, and picked his spots.

That’s not to say it wasn’t a close fight. Several of those rounds could have gone either way, and don’t believe for a second that Condit had no doubt about how the judges were going to score it. Standing there and waiting for Bruce Buffer to get through the preamble and just spit it out, Condit looked like one of those alleged fathers on the Maury Povich paternity test show. He might have been hoping for good news, but that was not the look of a man who knew for sure what was coming.

That’s how it goes with close fights. When neither man clearly dominates, you end up standing there at the end of the night, hoping for the best. Diaz can complain that Condit didn’t engage in the kind of fight he wanted, but he can’t say that the guy didn’t fight. Not with his face looking like that. Not if he wants anyone to take him seriously.

Georges St. Pierre hasn't lost a fight -- and really hasn't even been tested -- in four years. That's about to change.

Carlos Condit, who won the UFC interim welterweight title by beating Nick Diaz on Saturday night at UFC 143, is going to test St. Pierre in a way he hasn't been tested in years. The next time GSP steps into the Octagon, he'll be stepping into the Octagon with the best opponent he's faced.

We knew heading into Saturday night how physically tough Condit was. You don't win 27 professional MMA fights and win four in a row in the UFC, as Condit already had heading into Saturday night, without a whole lot of toughness.

What Condit showed against Diaz is how mentally tough he is. Condit survived 25 minutes against one of the best welterweights in the world and never wilted. Condit didn't change his game plan in the second round when Diaz started to get the better of the striking exchanges and began openly taunting Condit, as Diaz so often has to his opponents. And Condit didn't panic and didn't give in during the final minute of the fight, when Diaz took him down and took his back. A lot of men -- even a lot of great fighters -- would have been ready to break by that point. Condit couldn't be broken.

So is Condit good enough to beat GSP? As a striker, I believe he's already better than GSP. And he has a more diverse array of submissions than GSP as well. The big question is whether Condit's wrestling and takedown defense will prove to be good enough that he can stay off his back against St. Pierre. That's a tall order, but I like Condit's chances.

St. Pierre is also, of course, coming off a serious knee injury -- the kind of injury that some athletes never fully recover from. And St. Pierre will be battling ring rust when he fights Condit: By the time he's ready to step into the Octagon in November, he'll have been off for a year and a half. St. Pierre is also three years older than Condit. Those are all factors that favor Condit.

GSP will be the betting favorite heading into that fight, but Condit has a very good chance to win it. When Condit beat Diaz on Saturday night, we may have seen the man who has what it takes to beat GSP.

UFC 143 Notes

-- Fabricio Werdum showed off some great muay Thai in his victory over Roy Nelson. Werdum's stand-up has looked ugly in a couple of bad losses to the two best heavyweights in the world, Junior dos Santos and Alistair Overeem, but make no mistake: He's a very good striker in addition to being the best heavyweight grappler in all of MMA.

-- Matt Riddle's split decision victory over Henry Martinez gives him a respectable UFC record of 6-3, but let's be honest: Riddle is not a very good fighter. He barely got by Martinez, an undersized opponent who took the fight on short notice, and Riddle's other UFC wins are over DeMarques Johnson, Greg Soto, Dan Cramer, Steve Bruno and Dante Rivera. Not exactly a murderer's row.

-- When the 20-year-old Max Holloway stepped into the Octagon with the 23-year-old Dustin Poirier, we got a great look at the future of the featherweight division. Poirier put on a tremendous display on the ground in forcing Holloway to tap out to an arm bar from a mounted triangle, but give Holloway credit for the way he tested Poirier on the feet at the start of the fight. Poirier is a future featherweight title contender, and with work on his ground game Holloway could be too.

-- The UFC's new pay-per-view opening is an improvement over the old gladiator opening, but I still think there should be a fresh new opening with each show and the focus should immediately be on that night's main event fighters.

UFC 143 Quotes

"I know I'm the most hated man in MMA." -- Josh Koscheck, egging on the fans after they booed him following his split decision win over Mike Pierce.

"Don't fall for it when he's talking to you."--Greg Jackson telling Carlos Condit not to get sucked into Nick Diaz's style of fight. Jackson's advice was wise; it came after the second round, when Diaz was taunting Condit and trying to bait him into a brawl, but from the third round on Condit seemed comfortable and ready to fight his fight.

"Those lead leg round kicks -- we work them a lot in karate -- people don't see them." -- Stephen Thompson, after knocking out Dan Stittgen on the first fight of the night. Thompson was right: Stittgen certainly didn't see that kick coming. Thompson is an exciting new fighter for the UFC.

Good Call

Referee Kim Winslow stepped in at just the right time to stop the fight in Matt Brown's technical knockout victory over Chris Cope. After Brown knocked Cope down, Winslow gave Cope a chance to protect himself on the ground before stepping in to stop the fight when Brown landed two more punches that Cope couldn't answer. Stopping the fight immediately when Brown knocked Cope down would have been too quick because Cope was still conscious and trying to get into a better position. Stopping it any later would have subjected Cope to too much punishment. Winslow's stoppage was perfect.

Bad Call

I disagreed with referee Herb Dean taking two points away from Alex "Bruce Leroy" Caceres after his second low blow of the fight. Warning Caceres for the first low blow was the right call, but the second low blow should have only resulted in one point being deducted, not two. A two-point deduction would have been appropriate for an intentional low blow, but both of Caceres's kicks appeared to be accidental low blows. The judges gave the fight to Edwin Figueroa by split decision, 28-27, 28-27 and 27-28, which means that if Dean had only deducted one point instead of two, it would have been a majority draw.

Later in the same card, Dean again faced a situation where he warned a fighter about a foul and then that fighter committed the very same foul he had been warned about: Dean warned Josh Koscheck to keep his fingers away from Mike Pierce's eyes, and then Koscheck poked Pierce in the eye after that warning. But this time Dean only warned Koscheck again instead of taking even one point away, let alone deducting two points.

Stock Up

When Ed Herman lost three of four fights in 2008 and 2009 and then missed nearly two years with a knee injury, it was reasonable to wonder if his career might be coming to an end. Instead, Herman's stock has shot up with three straight wins since returning from that knee injury, and he looked great on Saturday night. Herman is fighting as well as he ever has.

Stock Down

Michael Kuiper entered UFC 143 as a well-regarded prospect with an 11-0 record, but he wasn't ready for an opponent on the level of Rafael Natal, who beat him by unanimous decision. Kuiper is only 22 years old and may have a good future in the UFC, but he's not there yet.

Fight I Want To See Next

Carlos Condit vs. Georges St. Pierre. This is going to be fun.