The lightheavyweight championship has been passed from the TUF 1 champion to the TUF 2 champion as the notoriously slow-starting Rashad Evans lost the first two rounds but came back in the third to defeat Forrest Griffin with a ground-and-pound tko ref stoppage to win the championship.
The fight started well for the affable Forrest Griffin who used his range and jab to keep the fight to the outside and attack the left leg of Evans while landing stiff punches to control the fight for 10 minutes. Evans had trouble getting to the inside and took some stiff shots from Griffin who looked to be in control of the fight as the horn sounded to end round 2.
The tide turned in the third as Evans was able to take the fight to the mat off an errant in the third and punished Griffin from the top landing stiff punches that seemed to stun Griffin who hung on to recover guard, but not his senses before Evans would ultimately capitalize. Evans came hard with a big right hand and followed up with a number of left hands until the referee stepped in to halt the bout at 2:46 of rd 3 securing the championship that has changed owners frequently in the past few years.
Evans stayed undefeated and pushed his record to 13-0-1 while Griffin's record fell to 16-5. It looks like a matchup between Thiago Silva and Lyoto Machida could decide the next challenger for Evans who now has the target firmly attached to his back.
“I didn’t even think I could beat Nogueira...” Those were the words of the new interim heavyweight champion Frank Mir shortly after doing just what he thought he could not do, defeat the "Minotauro" Rodrigo Nogueira.
Not only did he win, Mir was dominant knocking Nogueira to the mat twice in the first round absolutely dominating the stand up in the first round possibly taking it 10-8. The uppercut was there for Mir throughout the fight and Nogueira had no answer for it as Mir used his own advice, striking in three’s going high and low with kicks and keeping the former interim heavyweight champion off balance on to victory.
In the second two consecutive left hooks caught Nogueira flush, knocking him to the mat and Mir pounced on his opponent firing punches and after landing about two, referee Herb Dean stepped in to stop the bout. The punches on the mat did not land clean so some may question the stoppage - especially considering Nogueira’s penchant for taking punishment - but Mir was impressive none the less and will go on to face Brock Lesnar to unify the heavyweight belts. Nogueira just never got off in this fight and didn't look as lean as he has in the past, if that means he put on weight for this fight on purpose or not we may never know.
Following the fight Mir pointed at Lesnar who was Octagonside yelling “You got my belt,” through chain link fence, the rematch is set, and Mir is the new champion stopping Nogueira at 1:54 of the second round via TKO
C B Dalloway got the come-from-behind victory over Mike Massenzio to take him out at 3:01 of the first round of their middleweight bout. Massenzio landed a nice left hand that made Dollaway stumble to the mat forcing the TUF 7 veteran to go for the takedown to regain his senses. There was no respite there as Massenzio secured what appeared to be a solid Guillotine choke and it looked like Dollaway was in trouble but found a way to recover, pass guard, take the mount, get the back, and tee off until the referee Yves Lavigne stepped in to stop the bout.
“I had to let you guys know last time I fought him it wasn’t right.” If it wasn’t right last time, Quinton Jackson made it right this time as he knocked out Wanderlei Silva with a vicious left hook that put him out cold at 2:28 of the first round.
It started out evenly with both fighters firing off big shots it quickly became clear that the fight was not going to go the full three rounds, turns out it didnt even go three minutes as "Rampage" ducked under a violent Silva flurry and counter attacked with a left hand that careened off the chin of Silva sending him into an unwelcome and violent slumber.
Just before the finish Jackson looked for the takedown twice and was rejected both times, his inability to take the fight to the mat was not an issue as he soon felt redemption in his fists dropping Silva and following up with punches before referee Yves Lavigne stepped in to stop the bout.
Kongo's takedown defense looked much improved over previous fights in a lopsided victory over UFC newcomer Mustapha al Turk. Turk looked very stiff on the feet and after exchanging knee's to the groin, Kongo landed left and a right to put Al Turk on the mat. Kongo smelled blood and followed up with vicious ground-and-pound landing stiff elbows and punches to the face that cut Al Turk's open and forced referee Steve Mazagatti in to stop the fight at 4:37 of the first round. Impressive victory for Cheick Kongo who wants a title fight.
Matt Hamill improved his record, rebounding from a disapointing loss to Rich Franklin with a solid win over an underwhelming Reese Andy. In a less than impressive first round, neither Hamill or Andy were able to mount any significant offense and it wasnt until the second that Hamill began to take over. Landing the better stand up and forcing Andy to go for the takedown Hamill bullied his way to victory over the IFL veteran and submission specialist. Andy wasn’t able to get the fight to the ground and it would prove to cost him as Hamill used the knee’s to stun his opponent from the Thai clinch, muscle his opponent against the fence, and drop punches over a crumbled Andy until the referee was forced to step in and stop the fight.
Antoni Hardonk used a sweep to get off his back and take the mount and pound out his gassed opponent Mike Wessel at 2:09 of the second round to take a somewhat unimpressive heavyweight fight.
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