Sorry about the lack of a follow-up post on UFC 65, I headed home for the holidays straight after the show and haven't had a chance to get caught up. There will be a more lengthy piece on the implications of the start of the Georges St. Pierre Era in the next Weekly Tapout, but for now, a few observations:

*Ever notice since Matt Hughes' second fight with Frank Trigg, in which he suffered a low blow and had to fight through it because he wasn't given a chance to recover, he's always made sure to back off and call attention to anything that might have been a foul? Hughes refused to use St. Pierre's low kicks as an excuse for losing on Saturday, understanding that using quick  inside leg kicks were a big part of GSP's game plan. In fact, Hughes went so far as to say the low kicks may have affected St. Pierre more, since they made GSP more self-conscious about where he was kicking.

*Not only should Hughes get an immediate rematch with GSP when he's ready to fight again, but it is the only proper thing to do in this situation. The man dominated the division for years, went on an unprecedented tear, and was a critical player in helping build MMA to its present level. You don't cast someone of his stature in the sport aside and make him climb the ranks again after one loss. St. Pierre will fight Matt Serra first because that's what was contracted, but after that, Hughes deserves another crack at what was his crown and the real travesty would be if he was forced to fight a lower-level fighter first.

*The crowd in Sacramento was red-hot pretty much throughout the night at UFC 65, and it was pure bedlam in Arco Arena after GSP won the title, a scene comparable to a home team winning an NFL playoff game with a touchdown on the last play of the game. Las Vegas will always be UFC's home base, but the hot crowds for the debut shows in both Anaheim and Sacramento show that getting out to new cities promises to be a solid business plan for UFC going forward. Houston has long been considered a potential site for a show; Dana White has expressed a desire to run a show in Boston; and at this point, a show at the Bell Centre in Montreal headlined by GSP would basically be a license to print money.

*Tim Sylvia heard the jeers of the crowd before, during and after his win over Jeff Monson, but the UFC heavyweight champ is not going to change his style, which could be called the neutral-zone trap of MMA, to please the fans. "I've got to hold on to my title," he said. "That's the most important thing to me. Those guys who are booing, those are the people that just want to get drunk and see people beat each other up. They should just go watch bum fight DVDs. People who understand the sport know what I'm doing out there."

*White mentioned in the post-fight press conference that lightweight champ Sean Sherk recently underwent rotator cuff surgery, and that they do not have his next opponent lined up at this point.