Any casual follower of the fight game will quickly heed that the knockout is the definitive way to end a fight. It’s the single most dramatic answer to the “which fighter is better” question.

The knockout also negates the possibility of a corrupt or dubious decision and it eradicates the notion of a lousy draw. But most importantly, the knockout is the one key aspect of the fight game — whether it be mixed martial arts, Muay Thai or boxing — that attracts viewers to an event like hungry blue sharks to a school of squid.

Of course, the submission victory rests comfortably alongside the knockout in terms of magnitude, as the tapout, like its consciousness-removing counterpart, ends all speculation as to the real victor. With either scenario, the fight ends in a snap.

On Saturday night inside both the spacious MGM Grand Garden Arena in glamorous Las Vegas and Saitama Super Arena in scenic Saitama, Japan, five of the six most important fights of the televised cards all ended via knockout or submission.

Chuck Liddell (Pictures), Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures), Andrei Arlovski (Pictures), Takanori Gomi (Pictures) and Keith Jardine (Pictures) all ended their respective fights early, while Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Pictures) bounced back onto the winning road with an impressive unanimous decision.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has delivered a string of events recently that, in their entirety, bordered on mediocrity. But in the case of the heavily hyped UFC 66 card, the fighters on the main billing lived up to expectations and delivered a string of knockouts that left little doubt as to which man inside the hallowed Octagon chain link fence reigned supreme.

Most notable was the ballyhooed main event between two of the sport's biggest stars in North America: defending UFC light heavyweight champion Liddell and former 205-pound king Tito Ortiz (Pictures). While the fight wasn't exactly a carbon copy of most of Gary Goodridge (Pictures)'s fights in terms of action, intensity and drama, it did keep the packed house on its feet for the duration until the very end.

We also saw former UFC champion Arlovski get back on track, and there also was the ever-important upset with Jardine’s win over Forrest Griffin (Pictures).

The result of said fights is arguably more important because it assuredly will stir up debate, which is always good for the wonderful sport of MMA.

On the other side of the token, PRIDE’s typically stellar New Year’s Eve “Shockwave” was a little flat in the grand scheme of things, but that’s not to say that the event was crummy.

Emelianenko, regarded as the greatest fighter in the sport today, was surprisingly tested by relative MMA newcomer Mark Hunt (Pictures). Yet the defending undisputed PRIDE heavyweight champion proved why he’s the emperor of the sport by submitting his larger foe.

Lightweight tyrant Gomi wasn’t exactly impressive as he was supposed to steamroll Mitsuhiro Ishida (Pictures), but at least we now know that Hidehiko Yoshida (Pictures) should keep his gi on at all times, even when showering.

All hail and praise King Chuck … but please don't forget Tito

Naturally all the praise from both the MMA media and fans will rain down upon Chuck Liddell (Pictures) for successfully defending his title against Tito Ortiz (Pictures). The adulation and admiration he'll most certainly receive will come in droves and “The Iceman” will probably nab several more lucrative sponsorship deals along the way as well.

Liddell reportedly entered the bout against Ortiz will an injured knee, and if that's the truth it basically explains why he wasn't sharp or accurate all fight long. But he nevertheless scored the stoppage over archrival Ortiz and cemented his legacy as the greatest light heavyweight in the history of the UFC (sorry, Randy).

The second knockout victory over Ortiz was just another notch on Liddell's list of solid opponents he’s hit and crumbled. There's no reason to name all of the top fighters that Liddell has toppled over the years, as anybody who simply recognizes “The Iceman” already knows who he has trumped. The only knock that can be made against Chuck is that he has beaten the same fighters again and again over the course of the last 18 months, but that, in reality, isn't Chuck's fault.

The most sought-out fight of this millennium — Liddell against PRIDE middleweight champion Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) — could not be made for reasons out of Liddell's hands. Other supremely intriguing match-ups involving other stellar 205 pounders couldn't materialize either due to the fact that some of the world's best warriors have ties to either PRIDE or another fight organization.

Unless Zuffa, the company that owns the UFC, can scoop up fighting contracts for such fighters as Silva, Ricardo Arona (Pictures) or even Mauricio Rua (Pictures) from the suddenly struggling PRIDE, those mega fights will probably never occur to the dismay of many.

However, one fight that fans have been clamoring about for a few years now, Liddell-Quinton Jackson (Pictures) II, looks like a shoe-in to happen since Zuffa recently signed Jackson to a multi-fight deal.

It's a showdown that absolutely has to happen for myriad reasons and it's one that should rake in tons of loot. The only downfall is that not everybody following just the UFC (particularly the newer Generation TUF) has any idea who “Rampage” is. But once that fight becomes a reality, I'll elaborate further.

So while most of the positive influx of vernacular will focus on Liddell and his conquest of Ortiz, I am taking the liberty to send many praises the way of “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy.” Sure Ortiz lost and sure it came via knockout, but Ortiz didn’t get starched early into the fight like I figured he would. Also, he proved a lot about not only himself, but also his fighting ability.

Ortiz has been taking great measures to improve his storied sub-par stand-up attack and after the dust had cleared inside the Octagon, those with more than three brain cells will point out that Ortiz’ striking was solid.

Obviously Ortiz wasn't a clone of, say, Anderson Silva, but he looked better than he ever has striking-wise. In fact, he made Liddell look a little foolish at times. Ortiz blocked and dodged the vast majority of Liddell's strikes and was able to keep Chuck in check pretty much the entire fight, aside from two times he was decked and taken off his feet (and inevitably stopped).

Another positive aspect of Ortiz’s performance was that while his shots still are telegraphed and that anybody with even a hint of sprawl capabilities will stuff him, he never became discouraged (at least openly) and instead resorted to Plan B and sometimes C. Liddell was content to try and land singular bombs throughout the battle. If it wasn't for the near knockout in the first round, it can be argued that until the time the fight was stopped late in the third, Ortiz was ahead on the cards.

But as the wise men say, that's neither here nor there considering the outcome of the contest. Ortiz has already been thrown under the bus from various forum/chat room members and in my opinion it's unwarranted. He's only 31 and has a world of potential still lurking somewhere in that frame of his.

The only problem I see with Tito inside the cage lately is that he seems to be abandoning what brought him to prominence in the first place. Tito's never been a world-class striker, and at this stage of the game, even if he trains with the ghosts of Eddie Futch and Andy Hug, he’ll never be a world-class striker. Guys like Mirko Filipovic (Pictures), Anderson Silva, Duane Ludwig (Pictures), Semmy Schilt (Pictures) and even Takanori Gomi (Pictures) are world-class strikers, a group of guys who will never be mentioned in the same breath as Tito.

There is nothing wrong with Ortiz trying to improve upon his stand-up skills, but it seems to me that he has spent too much time on that and less time on his takedowns. Tito’s strength is far and away his vicious ground-and-pound, and his only chance of toppling Liddell on the mat.

Tito's failed attempts at taking Chuck off his feet were proof that he needed to work on that spectrum of his game more than the other. But again, Tito still looked good and once Liddell retires from the sport or moves up to heavyweight, chances are extremely high that Ortiz will nab the title again.

So my request to everybody already taking shots at Tito is to relax and cut the guy some slack. I’ve been critical of Ortiz in the past but I was just doing my job and giving my opinion on why, at the time, he never fought Chuck.

Ortiz is a talented fighter, a very good one. It’ll just take a little time before Tito morphs into the elite fighter I know he can be.