ENNIS: Forget heavyweight fights from UFC 135, the weekend belonged to lighter weight classes

By: Shawn Ennis, MMATorch Senior Columnist

I'm not one of those guys who trashes relatively weak UFC cards. They can't all be UFC 100, right? You'll never catch me saying before Saturday night that Bellator will be better than the UFC. Besides the fact that UFC cards are, if nothing else, more significant than anyone else's, they frequently also put on the best and most entertaining fights. Having said all that, let's face the facts. What we saw on Saturday night in Denver, between the gasp-fests of Browne-Broughton and Hunt-Rothwell and the clinic of Jones-Jackson, the heavier weight classes left something to be desired. I'm still working my way through the weekend's events (my DVR is exhausted), but from what I've seen between the UFC's Facebook prelims and the Bellator and Dream tournament opening rounds, this weekend belonged to the little guys - especially the bantamweights. And it wasn't remotely close.

Besides putting on some fantastic fights, we actually saw some guys who could be breaking out. Here's a breakdown:

-Bellator Featherweight Champion and self-proclaimed "Baddest Man on the Planet" Joe Warren entered Bellator's second bantamweight tournament, hoping to add another title to his collection. His ambitions proved to be too much as undefeated Alexis Vila ended Warren's night just a little over a minute into the first round, knocking the Greco-Roman ace out cold with a vicious punch after stunning him earlier. Vila immediately becomes one to watch.

-After dropping a decision in a rematch with Hiroyuki Takaya, Bibiano Fernandes rebounded in a big way with a nasty technical submission over Takafumi Otsuka. Fernandes would be a great addition to any organization's bantamweight division.

-Antonio Banuelos and Hideo Tokoro will never be Bantamweight Champions. But they put on a heck of an entertaining fight. Tokoro frequently puts on a show whether he's winning or losing. His fights with Daiki Hata, Abel Cullum and Yoshiro Maeda are good examples.

-Wilson Reis was a highly touted prospect back in the EliteXC days. He hasn't quite lived up to what people expected him to do since then, though he's had respectable fights. He's shown susceptibility to good strikers, though, and Eduardo Dantas continued that trend with a flying knee TKO on Saturday night. The Bellator bantamweight tournament is almost certainly the best tournament they've ever had. It's a very respectable bracket.

-I was traveling to Ohio on Friday night, so I haven't been able to completely watch the Titan FC card, but I did get where I was going just in time to watch Jamie Varner catch a hellacious beatdown at the hands of the unheralded Dakota Cochrane. Cochrane was positively dominant and just busted Varner up. He's only been fighting since November of 2009, and he's already 11-1. That's a lot of fights in under two years. Watch out for this guy.

-And of course on the UFC side there was Takeya Mizugaki more than likely ending Cole Escovedo's run in the UFC with a nice striking attack that resulted in a TKO, and there was Nate Diaz smoking the shell of Takanori Gomi.

The light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions are the default marquee divisions in combat sports, but to miss out on the little guys of 155 and under would be an absolute crime. The current drawing power of lightweight and featherweight will be tested at UFC 136 when Frankie Edgar and Jose Aldo both look to defend their titles in what look to be stellar match-ups. Here's hoping that the combination of UFC 136, this season of TUF and the UFC's new deal with Fox/FX/Fuel, we'll have some new marquee divisions soon.

Josh Burkman  Mikey Burnett  Murilo Bustamante  Grant Campbell  Gesias JZ Calvancante