The debut event for UFC in San Jose ended up with a full night of exciting fights and at least one hometown hero tasting defeat.
In the main event, light heavyweights Dan Henderson and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua faced off in a five round fight. Henderson went on the attack from the first round on, bloodying Rua around the left eye early and stuffing Shogun's takedown attempts. The two combatants kept up a furious pace in the opening two rounds, but both fighters quickly tired. Rua in particular looked completely gassed by the third round. Henderson was also winded following the opening rounds, and was unable to finish Rua. The fight went the distance and Henderson won the unanimous decision on three scores of 48-47, bringing his career record to 29-8.
In the match preceding that one, San Jose local legend Cung Le made his UFC debut, against Wanderlei Silva. Unfortunately, things did not go so well for him. Le seemed to take the majority of the first round, before getting bloodied towards the end and Silva beginning to find his rhythm as the round ended. Silva fairly demolished Le in the second round, notably catching him in a clinch and busting Le's nose with a vicious knee. Le shot for a desperation double-leg, but started getting pounded with hammerfists and the referee stopped the match in a TKO in 4:49 of round 2. With the loss, Le's career record stands at 7-2.
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