FanHouse MirkoCroCop

DALLAS -- With a small sample size of fights to analyze, it's sometimes difficult to accurately assess whether a young fighter is a contender or pretender. But in the case of Junior Dos Santos, it seems safe to say he falls into the first category.

The Brazilian striker looked crisp and powerful in his demolition of Mirko Cro Cop. The Croatian verbally submitted after complaining of vision problems, but the outcome was virtually assured by then. Dos Santos was simply bigger, faster and better.

DALLAS – While Rich Franklin will likely never say it, he didn't want a fight in September, let alone one against Vitor Belfort. Franklin would have preferred some time off, but the need for a headliner for UFC 103 pushed him into making the decision to participate.

Franklin may be a company man, but that loyalty – along with Belfort's considerable skills – cost Franklin, as Belfort returned to the UFC with a shocking first-round TKO over the ex-UFC middleweight champion in front of 17,428 at the American Airlines Center.

Experts who study boring things that aim to depress us say you can't learn anything watching TV. I say "bollocks" (which is a word I learned watching the BBC). Watching UFC 102 with a finely attuned eye, there was much to be learned.

Here's my list of five things I surmised from Saturday night's fights.