Kenny Florian stands alone among Massachusetts lightweights. Florian dodged several bullets but outmatched Joe Lauzon in the featured bout at UFC: Ultimate Fight Night 13 as he put away his fellow New Englander with a combination of slick Brazilian jiu-jitsu, supreme conditioning and a boatload of second-round strikes on Wednesday.

The curtain closed on Lauzon 3:28 into round two when Florian mounted his exhausted foe three times and finished him with a barrage of punches and elbows. When Lauzon was able to sustain an acceptable defense, referee Herb Dean intervened.

"Joe's a great competitor," Florian said. "I knew it would be a tough fight; it's what I wanted. I was able to just push through. I'm not going to let anybody break my will in here."

Eight years his opponent's junior, Lauzon appeared the stronger of the two in the first round as he scored with a pair of takedowns and threatened Florian twice with heel hooks. But by the time the round ended, the 23-year-old Lauzon had wilted in the thin mountain air and was ripe for the picking.

The win, Florian's fourth in a row, keeps him in 155-pound title contention. A product of season one of "The Ultimate Fighter" reality series, Florian (7-2 UFC) has shown marked improvement since he failed in his bid to capture the UFC lightweight championship in a decision loss Sean Sherk at UFC 64: Unstoppable . His string of six consecutive wins snapped, Lauzon (3-1 UFC) had not been finished in a fight since he submitted to Rafael Assuncao in February 2006.

Source: msn.foxsports.com