As the semester comes near a close, hardcore Mixed Martial Arts fans enter a new era. An era that will be seen worldwide, and an era fight fans will be talking about for a long time.

Watching the UFC on Fox was by far the most surreal moment I have ever had watching MMA.

The event kicked off with Fox Sports showing the sporting events they show and why they are the No. 1 network when it comes to sports. They showed conference championships in college football, the NFL playoffs, NASCAR, the World Series and then they showed the UFC.

I had to scratch my eyes a couple times to make sure this was actually the UFC I have watched for years getting this kind of mainstream publicity.

Then they showed the Honda Center where Cain Velasquez was readying to defend his heavyweight championship against Junior dos Santos, and Fox’s NFL music played in the background. You know the song that they played for last year’s Super Bowl?

That is exactly what this felt like —a Super Bowl.

Fox had their NFL analyst Curt Menefee introduce the world to UFC president Dana White and Brock Lesnar, and that followed with promo videos of both Velasquez and dos Santos.

The entire time this was going on I was just thinking, “wow, the UFC did exactly what they said they would.” See White has been saying for years that this sport was going to be the biggest sport in the world, and he said to give him 10 years and he would be on network television.

Well, it took him 11 years, but the UFC has arrived. And with how popular the sport is in countries like Canada, Brazil, UK, etc., I am starting to believe this sport has a chance to be the second largest sport in the world behind soccer.

But that is years down the road, and last night was all about the heavyweight championship.

The UFC previewed the fight like they normally do on PPV once Menefee passed it on to Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg.

The two fighters made their way to the cage, and it was time to make history.

Within a minute and four seconds, dos Santos dropped Velasquez and became the new heavyweight champion. Tears rushed down dos Santos face as he achieved his goal, and you could not help but feel great for the guy.

Dos Santos is one of the greatest human beings in the UFC, and on fight night he unleashed the beast.

The fight was not a five-round war like everyone had hoped, but did you really expect this fight to go long? Both men possess knockout power, and I just knew someone was going to win by knockout.

It was not until after the fight that the media learned that dos Santos tore his meniscus 11 days ago and was on crutches for two days. He could not walk. Hard to believe 11 days later, he pulled off the greatest victory of his career, and he made history. What an unbelievable athlete, and what an unbelievable sport.

The first UFC on Fox was a success, and all roads point to more success in the future.

You could not find a better time to be a fan of MMA.