There were two championship fights on the UFC 100 card from a sold-out Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada, and both title holders retained their belts in similar fashion inside the octagon.

Welterweight champion Georges ‘Rush’ St. Pierre (19-2) prevailed with a dominating ground and pound triumph over challenger Thiago ‘The Pitbull’ Alves (16-4), while Brock Lesnar (4-1) avenged his lone defeat with a technical knockout victory to retain his heavyweight title over Frank Mir (12-4).

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However, that’s where the similarities between the two champions end. St. Pierre is widely considered one of the classiest fighters inside and outside of the octagon. The French Canadian is also a true mixed martial artist, using an array of wrestling, kickboxing, jiu jitsu and other disciplines to dominate the welterweight division.

Lesnar, a former WWE pro wrestler, relishes the role of the heel that he learned from the Vince McMahon finishing school. The massive 285-pound fighter ended this matchup with Mir at 1:28 of the second round by grinding out his opponent. Lesnar then proceeded to trash talk Mir immediately after the fight before flipping off the crowd to a chorus of boos.

Lesnar has improved greatly from his first UFC fight, a first-round submission setback to Mir at UFC 81: Breaking Point. The Minnesota native actually opened the fight with a couple of leg kicks, but resorted to his usual arsenal of dominating wrestling.

Lesnar entered the octagon 40 pounds heavier than Mir (245 pounds) after cutting to the heavyweight limit of 265 at Friday’s weigh-in. Once the fight went to the ground, Lesnar used his size advantage to connect on numerous right hooks to the body and head of Mir.

The second round was more of the same, as Lesnar continued to drop bombs until referee Herb Dean stopped the contest. Lesnar opened as a $2.20 ‘chalk’ (bet $220 to win $100) to retain his title, but entered the octagon as a $2.10 favorite over Mir, the $1.75 underdog (bet $100 to win $175).

While the heavyweight main event was over in two rounds, the welterweight matchup went to the judges after five rounds.

Georges ‘Rush’ St. Pierre retained his title with a convincing unanimous decision victory over Thiago ‘The Pitbull’ Alves. The popular French Canadian champion won all five rounds according to the judges, prevailing 50-45 on two judges’ scorecards and 50-44 on another. VegasInsider.com also scored the contest in favor of St. Pierre, 50-45.

‘Rush’ won all five rounds by the same method, taking this fight to the canvas where he could grind up his opponent. There were a couple of submission attempts sprinkled in, but for the most part it was a various array of punches and elbows from the top position.

St. Pierre was closely watched by the Mandalay Bay security guards in between rounds to make sure there was no excessive Vaseline applied to his body, an unsubstantiated claim after his dominating victory over BJ Penn at UFC 94 earlier this year.

Alves is a powerful Brazilian striker, and had his best chance at victory by keeping this contest standing. St. Pierre picked his shots, and took down his opponent whenever the opportunity arose. The 28-year-old has now won his last six fights, and there is some talk that he might move up a weight class to battle middleweight champion Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva.

St. Pierre injured his groin in the third round, but triumphed as a $3.00 favorite after opening as a $3.20 ‘chalk.’

Dan Henderson made a statement with a devastating overhand right knockout of England’s Michael Bisping at 3:20 of the second round, putting an exclamation point of the victory with another lethal shot to his downed opponent. Shortly after the knockout, a stretcher was brought near the octagon as Bisping lay motionless for the next couple of minutes. He did eventually recover, and left the octagon under his own recognizance.

These two traded verbal jabs throughout the tapping of The Ultimate Fighter 9: Team USA vs. Team UK, with Bisping doing most of the talking. However, it was Henderson who had the last laugh.

The 38-year-old fighter now appears to have the next shot at middleweight champion Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva. Expect to see this knockout on various highlight reels for years to come. Henderson opened as a $2.60 ‘chalk’ to prevail, but was bet down to a $2.30 favorite

**Octagon Extras**

-Henderson was awarded Knockout of the Night, while Tom Lawlor took Submission of the Night. Fight of the Night went to the Alan Belcher-Yoshihiro Akiyama contest, with each recipient earning an additional $10,000.

-Yoshihiro Akiyama, a Japanese Judo champion, won a razor-thin split decision over Alan ‘The Talent’ Belcher in a middleweight matchup. ‘Sexyama’ prevailed 29-28 on two judges scorecards, while Belcher won two rounds to one according to a third judge. VI also scored the bout in favor of the Japanese fighter.

-Evidently, Akiyama and his model wife are the Japanese version of David Becham and Victoria Spice in the Land of the Rising Sun. The Japanese press had a noticeable presence at the UFC media sessions all week long.

-Mark ‘The Hammer’ Coleman, the father of ground and pound, used that method to secure a unanimous decision light-heavyweight victory over Stephan ‘The American Psycho’ Bonnar. It was a fitting tribute to have the 44-year-old former UFC heavyweight champion on the card, but he should end his career on this note. The Nevada State Athletic Commission gave Coleman just a one-fight deal due to his advanced age. ‘The Hammer’ won on all three scorecards, 29-28, while cashing tickets as a decided $3.00 underdog.

-Jon ‘Bones’ Jones continues to impress in the light heavyweight division after recording a second-round submission victory over Jake O’Brien. Jones combines an exciting combination of kicking and striking from unorthodox angles. The light heavyweight division is the UFC’s deepest, so ‘Bones’ will have to continue to rack up victories to climb up the proverbial ladder.

-Tom Lawlor recorded a first-round submission victory by guillotine choke over CB Dollaway in a battle of former TUF contestants in this middleweight matchup, but he will probably be most remembered for his entertaining antics. Lawlor stepped on Friday’s scales with UFC painted on his forehead, and Just Bleed on his chest as a tribute to a superfan at UFC 15 who quickly became a You Tube sensation.