Leading up to UFC 83, I think I overanalyzed the main event between Matt Serra (Pictures) and Georges St. Pierre (Pictures) just a little bit.

Once the fight was officially signed, I figured "Rush" would avenge his loss and prove the defeat to Serra one year prior was merely a shocking spike on his personal Richter scale.

While I never thought Serra's first-round stoppage of St. Pierre at UFC 69 was a fluke, I didn't expect the New Yorker to replicate his feat in any way, shape or form in their ballyhooed second go-around.

As the fight approached, nobody in print, on radio or on the Web seemed to disagree. Pretty much every "expert" of mixed martial arts proclaimed the initial encounter a fluke and suggested that Serra would lose to GSP 99 times out of 100.

Well, I'd seen it all too many times before.

Keith Jardine (Pictures) was supposed to get scorched by Chuck Liddell (Pictures); the '06 NCAA football Gators stood no chance against the Buckeyes; the '03 Marlins couldn't possibly topple the Yankees; the '05 NCAA football Longhorns were going to get trounced by USC; Forrest Griffin (Pictures) had no chance being in the same cage as Mauricio Rua (Pictures); and there was no way that Gabriel Gonzaga (Pictures) was going to be competitive against Mirko Filipovic (Pictures).

So as the fight grew near I went out on a limb and predicted Serra to score another victory over St. Pierre, thus proving to everybody but me that his title-snatching TKO in Texas was no accident.

But after watching the conclusion of Serra-St. Pierre II this weekend, it's evident that overthinking backfired and my (un)intelligence led me astray. St. Pierre handled Serra in every sense of the word, and now I can't help but feel as though their first fight actually was a fluke.

St. Pierre did whatever he wanted against "The Terror." He took him down, peppered him with strikes, passed his guard, thwarted his submission game and inevitably landed more knees to Serra's side than there are bolts in the Brooklyn Bridge. The stoppage was justifiable, and the finish was as emphatic and conclusive as St. Pierre could ever dream of, especially with it being in his hometown of Montreal.

When referee Yves Lavigne pulled St. Pierre off an almost helpless Serra, there was no doubt as to the identity of the true champion at 170 pounds. Now it's just a matter of whom St. Pierre will fight next and who deserves a shot at the title.

In my opinion, it's Jon Fitch (Pictures). It can't be Hughes because he was just demolished by GSP, and it can't be Josh Koscheck (Pictures) for the very same reason. Serra's performance Saturday doesn't warrant an immediate rematch either. Since other top welterweights in the UFC have either all lost recently or are not rated as high as Fitch, it's a no brainer that he should be St. Pierre's next foe.

Maybe I'm going out on the limb again, but as good as St. Pierre has looked in his last three fights, it'd be a fluke if Fitch even kept it close.

Misc. Debris

For a man whose last bout was supposed to be for the UFC middleweight crown, Travis Lutter (Pictures) certainly gassed out rather quickly against Rich Franklin (Pictures). It boggles my mind that after his weight-missing fiasco leading up to the Silva fight, Lutter didn't at least enter the Franklin fight in tip-top condition. But he wasn't; he was completely sapped of all energy early in the second round. Franklin, like the former champion he is, capitalized. Unless there's an undisclosed personal reason, there's no excuse for Lutter gassing out like that in such an important fight. …

Aside from committing a heinous crime, the almost guaranteed way to lose a UFC contract is to fight exactly the way Kalib Starnes (Pictures) did against Nate Quarry. Like Lutter, I'm not sure what the heck was going through Starnes' mind, but he flat out didn't even try out there. It's bad enough when fighters stink up the joint when they fight trying not to lose, but to not even try? That 30-24 scorecard is exactly what I would have turned in had I been a ringside judge. As for Starnes, he might as well turn in his UFC contract because it'll be a miracle if the hard-nosed Dana White gives him another chance inside the Octagon. …

Jonathan Goulet (Pictures) bucked a trend -- something I'm kind of bummed about. Goulet became the first fighter in quite some time to win an important fight with his hair looking the way it does. I briefly mentioned this in last week's Great Sherdog Debate, but I've noticed over the past few years that the way to rake in surefire money is to bet against the guys with wild, crazy-colored hair. You know you have a safe bet when the fighter you've bet on has an opponent who looks like he's spent way more time on his hair than on his training. Some examples of fighters with wild hairdos: Elvis Sinosic (Pictures), Heath Herring (Pictures), Chris Leben (Pictures), Thomas Denny (Pictures). Every one of these men has roughly a .500 record in big events. Coincidence? I think not. …

He wasn't "The Colonel" Bob Sheridan and he wasn't Howard Cosell. He wasn't even Jim Lampley, but Kenny Florian (Pictures) did a very good job commentating during the UFC 83 telecast. I see no harm in keeping Florian in the booth alongside Goldberg and Rogan, even on nights when "Ken-Flo" fights. …

Unless Anderson Silva loses the title, moves up to light heavyweight or retires, Zuffa will be hard-pressed to figure out what to do with Rich Franklin (Pictures) as far as a title shot goes. Not to sound disrespectful, but no matter how many wins he racks up and no matter whom he beats, how is Zuffa really going to market a third fight between the two when Silva has blown him out of the water both times? Unfortunately for Franklin, one of the classiest guys in the sport, he's stuck between a rock and a hard place.

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