Erick Silva (photo via UFC)

By Joshua Molina

Brazilian superstar Erick Silva returned to his winning ways Saturday in a stunning triangle armbar submission victory over Jason High.

Silva, of course, is one of the UFC‘s brightest, fastest-rising stars, whose momentum was derailed when he was shut down by Jon Fitch last October.

Silva will have to improve his wrestling takedowns if he expects to have a long, successful career in the UFC, but outside of that weakness, he is as good as they get. A fast and powerful striker with heaps of energy, Silva looks like a future champion.

So it’s odd and unfortunate that the man who temporarily derailed Silva was cut by the UFC earlier this year and now is fighting in the upstart World Series of Fighting.

Jon Fitch took Silva to school last October, putting on a highlight reel of submission defense and wrestling offense. Fitch controlled Silva for three rounds and won a unanimous decision. Fitch was then cut by the UFC after his painfully boring fight against Demian Maia.

Fitch has a reputation for being a skilled fighter, but also having a style that’s boring to watch. Still, he’s a top 10 welterweight and belongs in the UFC, perhaps even in a rematch with Silva one day.

Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante ran into some more bad luck in the form of a right hand from Thiago Silva Saturday night. This is the third time in his career that Feijao has been knocked silly in fight, including Dan Henderson in 2011 and Mike Kyle in 2009.

Feijao looked good early, swinging big with confidence, but slowed down and tired. While not many fighters can take a punch square on the jaw and survive, Feijao’s biggest weakness at this stage of his careers appears to be his ability to stand with heavy hitters.

His last victory was overturned because he failed a post-fight drug test, so Feijao needs to get back in the winning column quickly, unless he wants to decide whether to fight in Bellator or the World Series of Fighting.

Fabricio Werdum, the first man to legitimately defeat Fedor, submitted Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Werdum is a good fighter, but would have a hard time beating a top-level UFC heavyweight. Still, he deserves a title shot. He can do no worse than Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva.

Friday night saw the return of former WWE superstar and college national wrestling champion Bobby Lashley to the cage. Fighting for Titan Fighting Championship, Lashley easily submitted Kevin Asplund, who looked like he should be throwing horseshoes at the beach, not fighting inside a cage.

Asplund has lost his last four fights, one of them to Brett Rogers in Bellator, and he really needs to get himself into better physical shape if expects to have a career in MMA.

Lashley has a million-dollar body, but has struggled against top-level fighters. He was TKO’d by Chad Griggs in 2010, in a fight that Lashley had to be stretchered to because of dehydration.

Lashley still has a lot to prove in MMA, but maybe some smart promoter can book him to fight another WWE wrestler-turned-MMA-fighter, Dave Bautista, in a fight that almost happened in Strikeforce in 2010.

Contact reporter Josh Molina and jmolina@fcfighter.com