(Bellator 91 video highlights via Bellator.com)

Given that his last fight resulted in a loss to Travis Wiuff, Christian M’Pumbu was something of a paper-champion coming into his first official Bellator title defense against Attila Vegh. By the end of the match, M’Pumbu wasn’t a champion at all.

The two light-heavyweights met in the main event of last night’s Bellator 91 event at the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, with the Slovak challenger out-hustling his French-Congolese opponent over five rounds. Vegh directed the pace, landed harder punches — leading to a knockdown in round 1 — and slashed open M’Pumbu’s head with some elbows from the top in round 3.

Though the championship rounds didn’t offer much in terms of excitement, momentum was already in the favor of Vegh, who cruised to a unanimous decision victory. Vegh becomes Bellator’s new light-heavyweight champion, and will make his first title defense against…well, not King Mo, that’s for sure.

Bellator 91′s main card also featured the semi-finals of its Season 8 lightweight tournament. Leading off the Spike broadcast was a rematch between David Rickels and Jason Fischer, who had previously met in a non-tournament bout at Bellator 82; Fischer had come in as a short-notice injury replacement for Alexander Sarnavskiy. Though the final result was the same as their last meeting — Rickels by unanimous decision — the Caveman’s performance was even more dominant this time, as he outclassed Fischer with his striking and submission attempts.

Rickels’s win books him a ticket to the Season 8 lightweight finals against Saad Awad, who steamrolled Will Brooks in just 43 seconds on the other side of the lightweight bracket last night. Awad previously KO’d Guillaume DeLorenzi in 31 seconds during the lightweight quarterfinals at Bellator 87. Fun fact (or scary fact, if you’re David Rickels): Awad’s current six-fight win streak includes four knockouts in under a minute.

(Props: tadasjonkus via LiverKick)

Admit it — you like to see fighters get gruesomely hung out to dry once in a while. Our knockout of the day comes to us from a kickboxing show in Trieste, Italy, over the weekend, in which Tadas Jonkus knocks out Giuseppe Patane so thoroughly that Patane sloooowly tumbles out of the ring, head-first. The sight would almost be comical, if not for the fact that his landing surely added even more brain-damage to the concussion he already suffered from that blitz of punches. Arrivederci, my dude.

Meanwhile, halfway around the world in Albuquerque, boxing champion/MMA fighter Holly Holm suffered the first knockout loss of her career, eating it in the seventh round against Anne Sophie Mathis. The good news is, she didn’t fall on her head afterwards. The bad news is, she was basically K.O.’d through the ropes twice, due to a dangerously inept referee. Take a look…

(Props: mmapain)

Once in a while, a singular talent will arise and utterly dominate this sport. He comes out of nowhere, immediately starts whipping top-ranked fighters with years’ more experience, and leaves both fans and his opponents in awe of his abilities. Jon Jones is that guy right now. And nobody knows how fleeting that moment is better than Lyoto Machida, whose invincible aura (and “era“) went up in smoke as quickly as it arrived.

That’s what gives Jon Jones vs. Lyoto Machida such a great storyline for their meeting on December 10th in Toronto. Besides Machida’s unorthodox style, which could be an effective counter to Bones’s own funky attacks, the Dragon stands as a living reminder that nobody is invincible — seriously, not even Jon Jones — and defeat is simply a matter of running into the wrong guy on the wrong night.

Last night in Albuquerque, Keith Jardine picked up a TKO victory over Austin native Aron Lofton at Double Impact. Jardine dominated Lofton throughout the fight before slamming him and punching him out three and a half minutes into the fight. The fight marks Jardine’s second straight victory since being bounced from the UFC back in June. Granted, a victory over an 8-4 prospect who hasn’t fought anyone we’ve heard of doesn’t exactly prove much. But at least he’ll probably get paid for this, which is an improvement from his last fight.

Also victorious last night was professional boxer turned mixed martial artist Holly Holm, who made her MMA debut against Christina Domke. Domke managed to take down and mount Holm early, but once Holm got back on her feet this one wasn’t close. As expected, the decorated boxer outstruck Domke, punctuating her combinations with hard leg kicks. Holm knocked down Domke with a leg kick at almost four minutes into the second, giving her the stoppage. Apparently, Holm turned around after flooring Domke expecting a mandatory eight count. Isn’t that adorable?

Highlights of Holm’s victory from the local news after the jump:

CagePotato.com Video Interview with UFC vet Keith Jardine – Watch more Funny Videos

Our video reporter at large, Sal Mora recently caught up with former UFC light heavyweight standout Keith Jardine at his recently opened Mean1 MMA & Fitness gym in Albuquerque, NM and broached a number of topics with "The Dean of Mean."

Jardine gave us the scoop on what went down in the Dominican Republic during the nightmare Nemesis Fighting show on December 11 and also outlined his goals for 2011, which include stringing together a few solid wins and making his way back to the UFC. He recently helped establish PaytheFighters.com, a not-for-profit website whose purpose is to raise money to pay all of the short changed fighters on the Nemesis card.