The UFC has its latest major upset of 2007, as unheralded light heavyweight Houston Alexander, a late substitute and a 4-1 underdog on the MGM's sports book, just destroyed "The Dean of Mean" Keith Jardine in 48 seconds.

Albuquerque's Jardine (12-4-1) came right out and popped Alexander with a big left that rocked him backwards. But Alexander kept his wits and floored Jardine with a couple big rights. Twice Jardine tried to get up, only to meet Alexander's relentless onslaught.

The second time Jardine tried to get up, he was met with a big right knee, followed by a right hand that connected. The Omaha-based Alexander (6-1) hit a left knee as Jardine struggled to his feet, then polished Jardine off with a ferocious right that knocked out Jardine's mouthpiece. Steve Mazzagatti then stopped the fight.

UFC has a video that plays on the big screens right before the start of every pay-per-view broadcast, in which they air clips of some of their all-time highlights, set to The Who's Baba O'Reilly. It is one of the greatest promotional pieces I've ever seen. The highlights of Matt Hughes taking Frank Trigg for his famous ride and Forrest Griffin going toe-to-toe with Stephan Bonnar in their first battle always gets a huge reaction out of the fans. They put this together to hype up the crowd in the arena, but the fans at home should get to see this at least once.

They aired interviews with Chuck Liddell and Quinton Jackson on the big screen. Liddell got his usual superstar reaction from the full house at the MGM Grand; Rampage got a vehement mixed reaction.

The pay-per-view opener between middleweights Kalib Starnes and Chris Leben was billed as a fight both needed to win to have any real future in the UFC. Leben (16-4) came in with losses to Anderson Silva and Jason MacDonald in the past year; Starnes is coming off a loss to Yushin Okami. Both fighters went all out in a memorable battle before Starnes won a unanimous decision. The scores were 29-28, 30-27, 29-28.

Seattle's Leben pushed the pace with his go-for-broke style for the bulk of the first round, mixing in high and low kicks and going in for occasional combos. But the Team Quester got cute in the final minute with an attempted spinning back fist and Vancouver's Starnes caught him with a takedown. Starnes really rocked Leben with a flurry of punches as he was attempting to stand up in the final minute, which was apparently enough to sway the judges in Starnes' favor for the round.

The second was Leben's round, as aside from being on the wrong end of an early takedown, Leben pushed the pace and did more damage standing up.

Leben came out on fire in the third and rocked Starnes backwards with a kick to the midsection. Leben got in the mount, but Starnes reversed and controlled the action for the remainder of the round, including a nasty right elbow to the head, followed by a big right hand. The fight finished with both fighters trading haymakers on the ground, and they were given a standing ovation from the crowd afterwards.

Hopefully the loss doesn't drop the popular Leben out of sight. The Ultimate Fighter grad has lost three of his past four fights, but always puts on an entertaining show and may have gotten a decision with different judges tonight.

The final pre-broadcast fight ended with a freak leg injury due to a bad landing on a fall. Sacramento's James Irvin's right leg gave way while he was being taken to the mat by Thiago Silva. Looking at the replay, it appeared Irvin's leg twisted at a horrible angle above the ankle. Herb Dean stopped the fight at 1:06 of the first round.

The crowd booed Silva (10-0), a Chute Boxer from Brazil making his UFC debut, but it was an accident and Silva did nothing to deserve the reaction -- he fought a good, clean fight.

That's it for the undercard. Main show starts at 10 p.m. Eastern/7 Pacific.

A second straight awesome finish went down as Biloxi's Alan Belcher needed just 53 seconds for a guillotine win over former Ohio State wrestler Sean Salmon in a light heavyweight showdown.

Salmon picked up Belcher (10-2) for a slam, but Belcher sunk in the guillotine while he was getting set to go for a ride. Salmon (9-2) slammed Belcher hard, but Belcher, who took the fight on short notice, held on to the choke and Salmon tapped.

UFC 71 is under way at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. The buzz around the city of Las Vegas has been palpable, this is by far the biggest event in the city this weekend.

The American Top Team's Wilson Gouveia scored a solid win over Philadelphia's Carmelo Marrero in the opener, winning with a guillotine at 3:06 of the first round.

After a minute or so of pacing in center octagon, Gouveia (9-4) opened up his game with low leg kicks. Gouveia pushed the pace and hit a nasty knee that dropped Marrero (6-2). A big flurry of right hands led to the opening for the submission.

Gouveia said he wanted Chuck Liddell in his postfight interview, which got a mixed reaction from the crowd. Speaking of the crowd, they were quick to boo the lack of action in the early going.

In the second match, veteran Din Thomas (23-7) taught Iowa youngster Jeremy Stephens (13-2) a lesson with a spectacular armbar victory at 2:44 of the second round in a lightweight showdown.

Stephens sprawled to defend an attempted Thomas takedown and mounted his opponent. Thomas managed to nearly sink in an armbar, but Stephens picked him off the mat and slammed him hard.

Thomas hung on, however, and sunk in the armbar. Referee Big John McCarthy stopped the fight and Stephens claimed he didn't tap, but he was seconds away from a broken arm.

"I'll tell you what, if Big John didn't stop that, I was gonna break that arm off and take it with me," said Thomas, who put the Ft. Lauderdale-based American Top Team at 2-0 on the evening.

In the first round, Thomas feigned left then scored a takedown, then spent most of the rest of the round in control. Twice he got side control and twice he got Stephens back, nearly sinking in a guillotine at one point. Stephens reversed position late and landed a couple big bombs to the downed Thomas for a huge reaction from the crowd, but Thomas carried most of the action.