ALLAN THE MAN

Urijah Faber escaped early trouble to earn a decision victory over Yuri Alcantara at tonight's (Sunday, August 18 in Manila) UFC Fight Night 26 event in Boston, Massachusetts.

The first round came to a close with the kid from California on top. What a wild start. The second stanza wasn't nearly as eventful as the first, but it did see Faber reassert himself. The final frame, well, it was basically a repeat of the second. After all that initial excitement, Faber centered himself, got out of trouble, and took care of business using top control, ground striking, and superior position. Alcantara tried to threaten with submissions where he could, but there weren't any to be had.

Judges: 30-26, 30-26, and 30-27, all in favor of Faber.

WATCH 'UFC FIGHT NIGHT: Faber vs Alcantara Full Fight Replay Video' BELOW:

Former Pride and UFC champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua squares off against former middleweight and light heavyweight title contender Chael Sonnen.

Also on the card is the return of Alistair Overeem, who squares off against Travis Browne. Former title contenders Urijah Faber and Michael MacDonald are also scheduled to compete at the event. Others are Joe Lauzon vs. Michael Johnson, Uriah Hall vs. John Howard, Matt Brown vs. Mike Pyle,

Jose Aldo, assisted by a seemingly separated shoulder, finished Chan Sung Jung via punches in the fourth round of their featherweight championship fight at tonight's (Aug. 3, 2013) UFC 163 event in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

So Aldo is still your UFC featherweight champion, and we were likely heading for that result even without the shoulder injury, but there's no denying that the Brazilian got some help on his way to victory.

It may have been assisted by an injury but John Lineker finished Jose Maria Tome in the second round of their flyweight bout at tonight's (Aug. 3) UFC 163 event in Brazil.

As is usually the case with the little fellas, the action was fast and furious early. Lineker used his power to intimidate Maria into circling around the cage and keeping his distance. Unfortunately, that meant offering less offense, though he did land heavy and clean with significant offense.

WATCH 'UFC 163: John Lineker vs Jose Maria Full Fight Replay' BELOW:

It took Thales Leites about four years to get back to the UFC, but a successful return was sealed up about 30 seconds in. Leites, a former middleweight title challenger, took down Tom Watson 30 seconds into the fight, then dominated the bout on the ground en route to a unanimous decision sweep of the judges' scorecards.

Leites used a good combination early to bully Watson to the cage. He then looked for a trip takedown and got one 30 seconds into the fight. From there, he took the Brit's back and started to look for a choke. But more than anything, Leites landed some strong punches to the sides of Watson's head from the back, and he was able to open up a cut on Watson's left side.

It started with a left hook in the opening seconds. Cezar Ferreira landed it, Thiago Santos felt it, and it signaled the beginning of the end as Ferreira seized the opportunity to lock up a guillotine choke for the submission finish 47 seconds into the fight.

Ferreira hardly broke a sweat in his victorious effort. The winner of the first season of "The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil" had Santos hurt early, and didn’t let up. He locked on the arm-in guillotine while Santos was still woozy, and that was all it took to force the tap.

Jose Aldo will look to defend the UFC featherweight title, once again, at UFC 163. Challenging the champion will be Chan Sung Jung, who stepped in as a replacement for an injured Anthony Pettis.

Should he beat Jung on Saturday, Aldo would join Tito Ortiz, Jon Jones, Anderson Silva, Matt Hughes and Georges St-Pierre as the only fighters to earn five consecutive UFC title defenses. Aldo is already considered one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in MMA today, but being put on the same level as those names could earn him more recognition as one of the best competitors in history.

WATCH ' UFC 163 LIVE STREAMING' BELOW:

Chris Weidman ended the long, 2,458 days, illustrious reign of Anderson Silva at UFC 162. In a stunning ending, Weidman knocked out Silva with a left hook followed by ground and pound at 1:18 of the second round.

"Chris Weidman is the best, he's the new champion," Silva said afterward. "He's the best."

The end came on a sequence the likes of which we've seen so many times. Silva appeared to be toying with Weidman, making him miss with strikes. At one point, Weidman threw a left and missed and Silva pretended as if it landed and that it hurt him. But Weidman kept coming forward, threw a backhand right and then another short left hook.

Frankie Edgar finally got back into the win column tonight by defeating Charles Oliveira via unanimous decision at UFC 162

Into the second and the story remained largely the same. Edgar scored with his usual offense while Oliveira attempted to establish a jab that simply wasn't landing often enough. Edgar also worked a takedown late, a strategy he's used quite a few times before. Either way, it was close heading into the final round.

From there, it was very clear. Edgar started landing hard punches and after a particularly big shot, he absolutely dominated the remainder of the bout. The final scores were 30-27, 29-28, and 30-27, all in favor of Edgar.

Chris Leben has fought a career's worth of wars. Slugfests were his stock and trade, and the question has always been raised about when effects of those fights would show up. Slowly but surely, they appear to be creeping up on him.

Facing Andrew Craig at Saturday's UFC 162, Leben was unable to do little with any effectiveness except for moving forward. 

Apparently, that was enough to sway one judge in his direction, but two others -- the ones who saw clearly -- scored it for Craig. The split-decision win was scored 30-27, 29-28, 28-29.

WATCH "UFC 162: Leben vs Craig" FULL FIGHT VIDEO REPLAY BELOW:

After a year off, Mark Munoz can be forgiven if he needed a few minutes to get things sorted out. Once he did, his "Filipino Wrecking Machine" nickname was spot on. Munoz devastated Tim Boetsch on the ground over the final 10 minutes for a unanimous decision win.

"I feel amazing right now," Munoz said. "I'm just living proof what you can do with determination, will and desire. This was awesome. I told you I'd play some Donkey Kong – Donkey Kong showed up today."

Munoz (13-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) is back in the win column after a loss to Chris Weidman nearly a year ago, and he has five wins in his past six fights. Boetsch (16-6 MMA, 7-5 UFC) lost his second straight after a loss to Costas Philippou in December.

WATCH 'UFC 161: Roy Nelson vs Stipe Miocic' FULL MATCH REPLAY BELOW:

Former UFC light-heavyweight champion “Suga” Rashad Evans ended a two-fight losing streak with a razor-thin split decision victory over veteran Dan "Hendo" Henderson in the main event of UFC 161 Saturday in Winnipeg, Canada (Sunday morning in Manila).

Evans bucked a poor start and finished strongly in the third frame to grab the win, 29-28, 28-29, and 29-28. It was Evans' first victory since January 2012 after having lost consecutive bouts to reigning champion Jon "Bones" Jones and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.

UFC on FX 8: Vitor Belfort picked yet another win over a top middleweight by knocking out ex-Strikeforce champ Luke Rockhold in the first round. Belfort busted out a spinning kick that leveled Rockhold, and The Phenom followed up with some punches to turn his lights out. The finish came just after the halfway mark of the opening stanza.

With the win, Belfort (23-10, 12-6 UFC) picked up his 11th first-round finish in the UFC and could be in line for a future title shot. Rockhold (10-2, 0-1 UFC) was making his UFC debut on the card after a successful run in Strikeforce.

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre dominated both on the ground and on the feet en route to a unanimous decision victory over Nick Diaz in the main event of UFC 158 in Montreal.

It was a dominant performance from St-Pierre, who engaged Diaz in vicious trash talk in the weeks leading up to the fight.

But inside the Octagon, St-Pierre kept his cool and easily took down Diaz to the ground, and won most of the striking exchanges as well.