James Brydon

Follow fight-by-fight results for MMA events with Twitter. James will do live updates during all UFC events as well as many other promotions, including Canadian ones.

The Montreal Canadiens must have used up all the hometown magic in the Bell Centre in their win over the Pittsburgh Penguins Thursday, because there clearly wasn't much left for the Canadian fighters Saturday night.

Save for one gutsy comeback win (in more ways than one) for Winnipeg's Joe (El Dirte) Doerksen, it was a bloodbath for the red and white contingent, who went 1-6 at UFC 113.

And it was more than the losses that really hurt; it was the way a lot of them went down.

The night couldn't have started any worse for the Canadian athletes -- Jason (The Athlete) MacDonald said in his blog he hoped to set the tone for his countrymen in the first fight. That he did, but not at all in the manner he had hoped. He was plugging along alright against relative newcomer John Salter before a gruesome leg injury ended his night just two minutes and change into the first frame.

He broke his leg in two places, and suffered a separation of the ankle. He was to have surgery Sunday to insert a plate and two screws. A message from his camp said "he was bummed out a bit" (no doubt) "but he'll be good."

We'll have to see if he's one and done this time in the UFC. But after stepping up to take the fight on really short notice (and a really short turnaround) let's hope they give him another chance if and when he returns to 100 per cent. It figures to be a long recovery, however.

Speaking of long rehabs, both Jonathan Goulet and Patrick Cote both lost early in the second round of their bouts after roughly a year-and-a-half layoff because of injuries. It was a second straight defeat for each.

Cote will almost certainly stick around but Goulet could be in danger of getting cut considering he was knocked out in 33 seconds in his last fight. Cote, meanwhile, complained that he was spiked (planted head first into the ground, which is illegal) just prior to being finished off with a guillotine by Alan Belcher, but his face hit the mat first, which technically makes it legitimate, though referee Yves Lavigne (who didn't officiate the fight) wasn't so sure.

One guy who's had particularly bad luck lately is Tim Hague, who dropped yet another decision that was controversial, at least in my opinion and a few of my fellow bloggers sitting beside me on the night. I scored it 29-28 for Hague; I could see it being 29-28 for Joey Beltran, but not 30-26! I hope Hague isn't cut again since he keeps giving it his all and deserves a better fate than 0-2 in his last couple fights.

T.J. Grant also dropped a decision, but this one wasn't really debatable. He nailed Johny Hendricks with two kicks below the belt and was docked a point for it in the third. But lest you think it might have cost him, he would have lost anyway without the penalty, it just would have been a split decision rather than a majority.

The undercard would have been an utterly complete letdown for Maple Leaf supporters if it wasn't for Doerksen, who was in trouble and almost certainly losing the battle to Lawlor through the first round-plus. That was before Doerksen was able to counter the striking and wrestling of the American (who despite entering the arena to "Living in America" and draped in a U.S. flag, thrilled the crowd with his Apollo Creed impersonation) with his jiu-jitsu, taking Lawlor's back and executing a nifty choke.

Doerksen, who said afterward he's "always been a slow starter and a big finisher," erupted in excitement in an attempt to rally the Montreal crowd in the final preliminary fight.

Even though Sam (Hands of Stone) Stout lost, one thing you can always count on with him is a three-round war. It was another split-decision, and like two years ago at the first UFC event in Montreal when he fell to Rich Clementi, I think it was the right call, even though it was close. It was also his third straight Fight of the Night bonus cheque, and this one was worth $65,000, which is a nice consolation prize.

"What can I say about Sam Stout," White said in the post-fight press conference. "I don't know if anyone has won as much fight of the night money as he has."

It's been a Slice

In addition to all the Canuck carnage, another clear fan favourite went down quietly as the Kimbo Slice fight went pretty much the way I expected it to. Slice, who was already an internet and television phenomenon, endeared himself to Montreal this week with his comments and gestures, such as wearing a Habs toque at the pre-fight press conference and posing with the Guy Lafleur statue outside the Bell Centre.

But it was a slightly less impressive display inside the cage. Slice has the ability to throw bombs, but if he can't knock you out and it ends up on the ground, he doesn't know how to finish and if he gets into trouble, he locks up. After doing nothing but cover his face with Matt Mitrione on top of him throwing heaters, the ref had to mercifully end it. And now Slice is really done with the UFC.

Co-main event competitors Josh Koscheck and Paul Daley between them did just about as much as you could to upset the fans. Koscheck appeared to fake getting hurt by an illegal blow (like many thought he did against Anthony Johnson feigning an eye poke) though Koscheck insisted something got him. That led to some expletive-laced chants from the crowd directed at him.

Spending the majority of the three rounds lying on top of Daley frustrated the fans too, and evidently Daley as well, who is now gone from the organization after the late cheap shot. And Kos capped it off by flipping off the Montreal crowd in targeting two of their beloved -- GSP and the Canadiens -- in his post-fight interview.

White's proclamation after the fight was not only a message to Daley and all fighters in future, but also to rival promotion Strikeforce, who saw some similar post-fight fisticuffs break out last month. But while that organization appeared to gloss over the incident, White emphatically declared that the UFC has zero tolerance for it.

It was a very unfortunate display, but in case you worry that it could be yet another setback for getting the sport sanctioned in neighbour province Ontario, UFC VP of regulatory affairs Marc Ratner, who has made many trips to Toronto to lobby for the sport including this past week, told me that the Strikeforce melee has never been brought up. While that kind of thing doesn't help, it's really a red herring.

Finally, thank goodness for Shogun, who made sure fans left on a high note -- and without controversy this time -- with one of the more impressive knockouts you'll ever see, especially considering who it was against. Lyoto Machida, who has normally been the deliverer of such punishments, had never been finished before. But with the majority of the crowd itching for Mauricio Rua to capture what they felt was already rightfully his, he wasted no time.

Compared to the way the rest of the night went, that was a magical moment.