Yeah, looks like no one here watched it. A lot of the UFC fans, including myself thought it was dumb that they didn't air Ben Henderson vs Clay Guida, it went 15 minutes and was an awesome fight as expected. And they ended up having one fight go for 40 seconds on a one hour show...nevertheless, the production was good, and Fox and UFC were both pleased with the show. 2012 is really when it should pick up with the two hour shows.
As far as to who to keep an eye on, I'll post a quick run-down.
John Jones is probably the most dangerous guy in the sport right now, he's fought great guys, and is only in his early 20's. His only loss was from DQ because he threw an illegal elbow that fractured a guys orbital bone. He has two brothers that play in the NFL. He's going to own the sport for many years to come, and he's only getting better. It's scary. He's also a great and humble guy. He even witnessed a old woman get her purse stolen and chased down the thief and returned her purse back to her a few hours before his last fight, it was pretty crazy..
Anderson Silva and George St. Pierre are the next two best guys. Anderson is a Brazilian who has amazing stand-up striking ability and has some of the greatest KO's in the sports history. GSP is an Olympic calibrate wrestler and one of the most feared fighters in the sport.
@Satin. MMA is a sport now, back in the day when you were watching, it was more of a freak show. Dana White who is the president of the UFC, bought it in 2001 and made it a success in just 5 years, he's a former boxing promoter. He's never afraid to speak his mind, curses a lot, and doesn't bullshit with that the fans, he's taken the sport a long way.
And yeah, Royce was a bad motherfucker, but a lot of those early UFC fights were mismatches. Now days, every one is great, you can't just be good at boxing, judo, or wrestling to be successful in the MMA, you have to be good at everything. The sport has evolved. And the rules they have now are to protect the fighters and make it safe. Poking a guy's eye or Head stomping him could really fuck them up in a bad way.
John Jones, Anderson Silva, and George St. Pierre, are the best guys for the UFC to promote. They all have great personalizes, and are legitimately nice guys.
And a lot of athletes and celebrities have been on the bandwagon for a while now. A lot of football players train MMA to get in shape, just saw a video of Demarco Murray the other day. I doubt this aired on TV, but this is a pretty good video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yThVrdR7dW8