Phil Davis,
aka
"Mr Wonderful", kept his undefeated record intact by
beating his toughest opponent to date in Antonio Rogerio
"Lil Nog" Nogueria by unanimous decision in the
main event of UFC Fight Night Live from the KeyArena in
Seattle.
The bout finished off a solid night of UFC
fights, with the 12 pro matchups delivering plenty of bang
for the buck for the sold-out house of over 14,000 NW Fight
fans.
Davis came out
in the first round throwing kicks and attempted to get a
takedown. Lil Nog counterpunched and stuffed early
takedown attempts, till Mr. Wonderful drew on his wrestling days
to get Lil Nog to the mat where he delivered some tough ground and pound.
Nogueira got it back to the feet and just as he looked
like he'd become the attacker, Davis lands another
takedown and scores with elbows and punches. Nogueira was
unable to break the pattern over three rounds and all 3
judges saw it 30-27 for Davis. He moves to 9 and 0,
and at the post fight press conference said he didn't want
to be living in Jon Jones' shadow. For now he moves on in the stacked 205lb UFC division.
Leading up to the fight, Anthony "Rumble" Johnson
promised opponent Dan "The Outlaw" Hardy a war of hands.
In reality, it turned into Johnson controlling the clinch, the cage, and almost tapping Hardy in a war of
attrition giving Johnson the decision. Hardy refused to
concede, didn't tap to a tight arm-triangle, and came at Johnson the whole 3
rounds, but it was Johnson's day by a long way. Johnson later said how he wanted a finish but was glad with the
win as the weight cut was crazy. This guy cut from 230 lbs
to weigh-in at 170, and on fight night said his weight was
back up to 195 lbs. Pretty intense!
UFC history was made when "The Korean Zombie" Chan
Sung Jung submitted Leonard Garcia with a "Twister" with less than 1 second left on the clock!
This Eddie Bravo innovation had never been pulled off
before in a UFC fight, but Jung was able to finish with the
move just before a great 2nd round was coming to a close.
A battle between TUF alumni Amir Sadollah & DaMarques Johnson
ended with Sadollah getting the win by TKO due to Strikes at 3:27 in round two. Johnson took the fight on two weeks notice and started the off strong, but Sadollah put him away fast in the second showing
off his rapidly evolving skills at UFC Fight Night Live 24.
Local favorite Mario Miranda, who fights out of Kirkland
WA's AMC, couldn't get it going against wrestler Aaron Simpson who controlled him most of the fight, grinding out a decision win.
Johny Hendricks needed only 1:35 to TKO TJ Waldburger with two left hands that sent him to the mat
quick and netted Hendricks a $55,000 bonus for KO of the
Night.
Another fighter that was sent to the mat was Sean McCorkle who had to be revived after being put to sleep with a Standing Guillotine choke, due to the strength of Christian Morecraft. Morecraft let McCorkle drop and earned
the submission victory at 4:10 in round two.
Mackens Semerzier gets better with each fight, this time
coming out and dominating Alex "Bruce Leroy" Caceres
with solid ground control, gaining Caceres back, and
forcing the tap to rear naked choke at 3:18 in round one.
Spaniard's favorite fight of the night, and as it turned
out the UFC's as well, was a bantamweight matchup between Michael
McDonald and Edwin Figueroa. These two were set on throwing hands and ducking with
intent. McDonald was dropping bombs on Edwin who seemed to take it just fine,
and threw right back. This fight went the distance and was nonstop action from bell to
bell! After it was over, it was McDonald who came out on top, earning all three judges decision.
Both fighters earned $55,000 from the UFC for Fight of the
Night honors.
All
in all, this was a fantastic Saturday of UFC fight action in the Pacific
Northwest!
The
next UFC show will be April 30th with UFC 129: St-Pierre
vs Shields in Toronto.
On
June 11th, the UFC returns to the Northwest, heading north
of the border,
with
UFC 131 from Rogers Arena in Vancouver British Columbia. More at UFC.com.
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