Evans beats Ortiz at UFC 133

The crowd was not as sizeable as the first installment two years ago but hype and noise was still at a premium for the Ultimate Fighting Championship's return to Philadelphia last night.

On this night, UFC nestled inside the Wells Fargo Center, was competed for fanfare with a Taylor Swift concert going on across the street at Lincoln Financial Field. Additionally, the Union recorded a 1-1 draw with Houston to another sold out crowd (18,524) at PPL Park.

UFC boss Dana White announced that a crowd of 11,583 produced a $1.5 million gate for last night's 11-fight card headlined by a pair of former light heavyweight champions in Rashad Evans and Tito Ortiz and a co-main event that featured Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist Vitor Belfort and Japanese judo specialist Yoshihiro Akiyama.

The last time the UFC rolled its caravan into Philly it was in front of a sold out crowd at UFC 101 (August 9, 2009). In front of a bevy of notables that included actor Mickey Rourke, former Sixer Charles Barkley and Philly's own boxing sensation Bernard Hopkins, despite a plethora of empty seats, Wells Fargo didn't lack for excitement.

While it wasn't a title fight -- which was originally supposed to go down between Evans and current light heavyweight title holder Jon Jones -- the main event was affirmation the 14-month layoff Evans took after his defeat of Quinton "Rampage" Jackson was worth it. A sleek Evans defeated Ortiz (who took the fight on short notice after Jones and Harrisburg native Phil Davis felled due to injury as his defeat of Ryan Bader a month ago at UFC 132) 4:48 seconds into the second round after a knee to the solar plexus dropped Ortiz like a stone and solidified Evans (21-1-1) as the No. 1 contender for the light heavyweight crown in addition to settling the score from the only draw in both their careers after their fight in UFC 73. Early in the second, it looked as if Ortiz (17-9-1) would pull off the upset, when Evans off his second double leg takedown of the night gave up too much neck and was caught in a guillotine choke it took more that a minute for him to wriggle free.

"It was a great night, I got mad respect for Tito for taking this fight," Evans said. But I want that belt. Whether it be Jon that has it or Rampage (after their upcoming main even fight at UFC 135 in Denver) I'm getting my belt back."

Evans added he hopes his opponent will be Jones, who he described as "cocky, like for real, cocky." And "someone I really want to teach a lesson too because I want to show him that he's really not the (bleep)."

Actor Mickey Rourke who showered Evans with hugs and affirmation backstage following his fight told the Daily News and Philly.com: "I don't just come down to New York for nothing, Rashad is a good friend of mine and he put together a good (training) crew. It's obvious (after) tonight he wants his belt back and I plan on being there when he goes after it."

In the co-main event, it took 1:53 into the first round for Vitor Belfort (20-9) to get a win via knockout over Akiyama. Belfort punished the Japanese judo specialist with an uppercut that dropped him to the mat before a flurry of elbows and fists to the head momentarily caused Akiyama to black out.

"I want to thank Jesus for everything he's done in my life, I'm back! I'm back!," exclaimed Belfort, who evidently shrugged off a first round loss to Anderson Silva, pound-for-pound the best fighter in UFC. "This was the most incredible atmosphere…I felt great, I feel like a winner I'd like to thank all the people who supported me, I heard you, I heard everyone of you."

While the preliminary rounds lacked for quality moments -- five of the six prelims went the distance (four unanimous decisions, one split decision) the main card picked up the slack with three TKO stoppages and Belfort's knockout. Baby faced assassin Rory McDonald improved to 12-1 after making work of veteran Mike Pyle (21-8-1) just three minutes, 54 seconds of their welterweight bout. Brian Ebersole improved (48-14-1, 1 no contest) after mincing opponent Dennis Hallman's face after just 4:28 in. Hallman, who chose to wear a pair of supremely snug royal royal blue Speedos was the butt (pun intended) of a joke from featherweight Urijah Faber on Twitter. Faber tweeted: "Dennis Hallman: first fighter to fight w blue balls....on full display."

Ebersole joked: "To be honest, I was worried, I was worried about that cup, the last thing I wanted was to have a fight that was remembered for a disastrous wardrobe malfunction."