(What a crazy year it’s been. Just think, four weeks ago that bald guy in the middle was actually homeless. / Photo courtesy of Esther Lin’s UFC 155 weigh-in set on MMAFighting.com)

UFC 155 might not be as epic as some of the UFC’s previous end-of-year cards (you can blame the injury curse for that), but any time the Heavyweight Championship of the World is at stake, it’s must-see TV.

Tonight, defending champ Junior Dos Santos will try to keep the train a-rollin’ in a rematch with his old pal Cain Velasquez. Meanwhile in the co-main event, lightweights Joe Lauzon and Jim Miller will gobble up as many performance bonuses as they can get their little hands on. Plus, six middleweight contenders — including Tim Boetsch, Alan Belcher, and Chris Leben — will swing their ham-hock fists at each other, in the hopes that the most popular kid in school might notice them. Lotsa luck, ladies.

Running our final liveblog of the year (!) will be none other than Elias Cepeda, who will be updating you with round-by-round results after the jump starting at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest, and please share your New Year’s resolutions in the comments section.

Well, we should have seen this coming.

Not that it matters to Anderson Silva, but UFC 155 was supposed to set the stage for a fight that would more or less* determine the next top contender of the middleweight division when Chris Weidman and Tim Boetsch squared off. But as things are wont to do in 2012, it has just been announced that Weidman has suffered an undisclosed injury and has been forced to pull out from his scheduled fight at UFC 155. Newsday was the first to break the news:

Chris Weidman, one of the top UFC middleweight fighters, is out of UFC 155 next month with a shoulder injury, Newsday has learned.

Weidman said the injury occured Tuesday while training in Arizona with UFC light heavyweight Ryan Bader and Levittown-based Strikeforce light heavyweight Gian Villante. The injury occured during a grappling session, the 28-year-old Weidman said.

“I hit a double-leg and that’s it,” Weidman said Wednesday. “My shoulder landed weird and I felt a pop. I can’t even move my arm.”

Weidman said that he hasn’t received an official diagnosis from doctors, but he believes it is a torn labrum.

Seriously, Thiago Alves weighed in at nearly 200 lbs three hours after making weight. There’s still no punchline coming. Props: UFC.com

Almost immediately after last night’s main event of UFC on FX: Alves vs. Kampmann, the Martin Kampmann/Tim Boetsch comparisons came out in full force from fans and pundits alike. One can easily understand why, as Kampmann’s come-from-behind victory over Thiago Alves was the greatest one in UFC history since last week’s efforts from Tim Boetsch. But perhaps this comparison misses the point. While this comeback was obviously at least partially due to a gutsy performance from Kampmann, it had far more to do with questionable decision making from Thiago Alves.

Save for a first round kick that rocked “The Pitbull”, Thiago Alves was in total control of last night’s main event. His stand-up attack was simply too much for “The Hitman”, who offered less resistance as the fight progressed. Despite this, Alves- who isn’t exactly known for his ground game, mind you- attempted a double leg takedown on a visibly hurt Martin Kampmann and wound up getting caught in a fight-ending guillotine choke.

It’s easy to understand why Thiago Alves was eager for the finish, especially after watching Demetrious Johnson be declared the winner of his fight against Ian McCall (more on that later). What is astonishing is the fact that he took the fight to the only place where he didn’t have a clear advantage over Kampmann. The takedown gave Kampmann time to regain composure, and negated the need to get through The Pitbull’s leg kicks in order to utilize his superior grappling.

(If I’ve told one reporter, I’ve told them all. No Nick Ring questions. At all.)

The UFC has recently announced a middleweight clash between TUF 11 winner Court McGee and up and comer Constantinos Philippou for the promotion’s second installation on FX, which goes down March 3rd at the Allphones Arena in Sydney, Australia.

Coming off a unanimous decision victory over Korean slugger Dongi Yang, McGee is a perfect 3-0 in his octagon career, submitting Kris McCray back in June of 2010 to win the glass plaque and doing the same to Ryan Jensen in his post-TUF debut the following October. After dropping a decision to Nick Catone in his own debut, Philippou has notched two straight, scoring a split decision over Jorge Rivera at UFC 133 before absolutely blistering Jared Hamman at UFC 140. This one’s gonna be a brawl, ladies and gents.

There’s a time for fightin’, and a time for dancin’! Nog breaks out “The Robot“, Mir shows off the “Smooth Criminal“. (Photo: UFC.com)

I’m not sure what sort of pre-fight pep talk was given to the fighters in their locker rooms last night, but I hope somebody recorded it to play at all future events. “Never leave it in the hands of the judges” doesn’t begin to capture the sentiment that most of the fighters carried with them to the Octagon. Last night’s finishes were emphatic and extraordinary. Knocking your opponent out wouldn’t do—it would have to tie for the quickest KO in UFC history. Subbing the previously untapped wasn’t enough—you had to break them or render them unconcious.

We’ve already broken down the Jones-Machida bout, so we’ll just say the champion definitely gave us something to Skype about. Now, onto the rest of the card.

(Shouldn’t have trusted him in the first place, Jorge.)

As first leaked by Mike Chiappetta, UFC middleweight Alessio Sakara has been forced to withdraw from his UFC 133 main card bout against Jorge Rivera due to a torn ACL. If you were just struck by an eerie sense of deja vu, here’s why…

Sakara and Rivera were originally paired up for UFC 118, but Rivera was forced to withdraw due to a broken arm. (Sakara was quickly matched up with replacement opponent Gerald Harris before bowing out himself due a knee injury.) The two fighters were re-scheduled for UFC 122 last November, but Sakara pulled out on the day of the fight after experiencing flu-like symptoms that were either weight-cut related, or tuna-related.

Barring something completely crazy and unexpected, the fight card for UFC 133 on August 6 in Philadelphia is set in place. Yesterday, the UFC officially announced the addition of a middleweight clash between Rafael Natal and Constantinos Philippou to the prelims. Rafael Natal is coming off of a majority draw against Jesse Bongfeldt at UFC 124, while Constantinos Philippou lost his UFC debut against Nick Catone at UFC 128.

Even though both middleweights are still searching for their first UFC victories, this bout is likely to appeal to the local fans. Both fighters are veterans of Atlantic City’s Ring of Combat, amassing a combined record of 10-2, with one no contest within the promotion.

UFC 133 will be headlined by a light heavyweight fight between Phil Davis and Rashad Evans. Also set for this card is throwback between Rich Franklin and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, the return of Vitor Belfort against Yoshihiro Akiyama and another attempt at the ill-fated Jorge Rivera vs. Alessio Sakara scrap. Not to mention the other seven fights listed after the jump.