|
Written by Andrew Gladstone
UFC 115 took place this past Saturday night in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in front of a sold out General Motors Place. In the main event, UFC Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell took on Rich Franklin, and in the co-main event the legendary kick boxer Mirko “Cro Cop” took on Pat Barry.
The night went underway with two preliminary bouts that aired on Spike TV with Mac Danzig vs. Matt Wiman and Tyson Griffin vs. Evan Dunham.
The first preliminary bout on Spike ended in controversy. After Mac Danzig seemed to have the better of Matt Wiman early on, Wiman secured a guillotine choke, however the ref stopped the fight with Danzig still conscious in the first round.
Next up was lightweight contenders Tyson Griffin and Evan Dunham. Evan Dunham pulled off on an eye popping performance over Griffin in route to a split decision, which should’ve really been unanimous. In the first round, Dunham countered Griffin with beautiful hand combinations, and would take Griffin’s back and managed to control Griffin throughout the round. The second round, Dunham seemed to pick things up and timed takedowns off of Griffin’s hand combinations, and he would take Griffin’s back once again and controlled much of the action. In the final round, Griffin began landing more of his strikes, but would inevitably suffer the same fate he had in rounds one and two, where Dunham would take him down and have his back.
The first bout on the UFC 115 pay-per-view, proved to be a barn-burner with welterweights Rory MacDonald and Carlos Condit. To the surprise of many, the 20 –year-old MacDonald brought the fight to the former WEC welterweight champion and took Condit down repeatedly the first two rounds, and was even on the feet. After being down 2 rounds, you could see Greg Jackson furious and barking orders to Condit to get the job done. In the final round, Condit would please his coach as he hurt MacDonald early and would rain down vicious elbow strikes and punches that would take the wind out of MacDonald. The ref decided with just seconds left in the third round that the punishment had been to much for MacDonald and Condit picked up a third round TKO victory.
Heavyweights Ben Rothwell and Gilbert Yvel were next on the bill. The first round saw Ben come out furious with rapid punches, and took down Yvel on numerous occasions, but to Yvel’s credit he was able to power out of many of the dominant positions Rothwell put him in. In round two, Rothwell looked to takedown Yvel again, but Yvel would manage to sweep Rothwell with an americana from the bottom and landed furious punches that almost decapitated Rothwell To Rothwell’s credit he escaped round two and managed to takedown Yvel again to close out the round. The final round saw a much slower pace, as Rothwell managed to take Yvel down and grind out his all important first UFC win by unanimous decision.
Welterweight contenders Marin Kampmann and Paulo Thiago picked the action up that was missing in the Yvel and Rothwell fight. In the opening round, Kampmann utilized his technical kickboxing prowess to stifle the larger Brazilian Thiago and utilized his wrestling to stay on top throughout much of the round. Round two saw Kampmann shocking the world with his grappling ability, as he took Thiago’s back and even threatened Thiago with an arm triangle. The third and final round saw much of the same as round two, where Kampmann would take dominant position and utilize his highly underrated grappling ability in route to a unanimous decision victory.
In the co-main event, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic managed to submit the younger Barry and captured “Submission of the Night” honors. Barry seemed to get the better of “Cro Cop” in the first round and managed to drop the Croatian on two occasions, but he didn’t seem to follow up with any ground and pound. Round two saw “Cro Cop” take over and begin to mix up his strikes with takedowns on the grappling novice Barry. In the third and final round, Barry appeared to be fading and “Cro Cop” would land a devastating punch combination that sent Barry to the canvas, and then “Cro Cop” would take the back of Barry and submit him via rear naked choke without any hooks in.
The main event saw former UFC champions Rich Franklin and Chuck Liddell square off in what was Liddell’s final fight in the octagon. Franklin managed to tag Liddell early and often, but Liddell would fire back with a kick that broke the arm of Franklin and a takedown with some heavy punches, it was then where Franklin would scramble to his feet and Liddell and Franklin would continue to exchange punches. After Liddell stalked Franklin against the cage and began unloading a right hand, Franklin would inevitably catch Liddell with a short right hand that sent Liddell to the canvas and Franklin would follow with punches to knock Liddell out just seconds before the first round ended.
Full UFC 115 Results:
Main Card
Rich Franklin defeated Chuck Liddell via KO (punch) at 4:55 of round 1
Mirko Filipovic defeated Pat Barry via Submission (rear naked choke) at 4:30 of round 3
Martin Kampmann defeated Paulo Thiago via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Ben Rothwell defeated Gilbert Yvel via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Carlos Condit defeated Rory MacDonald via TKO (strikes) at 4:53 of round 3
Preliminary Card (Spike TV)
Evan Dunham defeated Tyson Griffin via Split Decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)
Matt Wiman defeated Mac Danzig via Submission (guillotine choke) at 1:45 of round 1
Preliminary Card (Un-aired)
Mario Miranda defeated David Loiseau via TKO (punches at 3:07 of round 2
James Wilks defeated Peter Sobotta via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Claude Patrick defeated Ricardo Funch via Submission (guillotine choke) at 1:48 of round 2
Mike Pyle defeated Jesse Lennox via Submission (triangle choke) at 4:44 of round 3
|
