1) Ray Perales vs. Dave Terrell: The other Terrell; the one who doesn't get hurt all the time and had a short career in the old WEC.
FIGHT: Terrell Unanimous Decision. Not a terribly competitive fight until the very, very end. Terrell's gameplan consists of pushing Perales to the cage and getting takedowns. This works almost every time. Probably 12-13 times in total. The last time is when a problem emerges; a tired Terrell actually find himself trying to take down a Ray Perales who isn't walking forward and giving up the distance, and who actually sprawls. Perales goes for a guillotine and sits up Terrell, and actually pushes him back over and takes the mount as the bell sounds for the end of the fight. Way too little too late. (0)
2) Thomas Ramirez vs. Kendall Grove: Ramirez was the co-main event fighter against Forrest Griffin in one of the worst UFC co-mains ever. Kendall won TUF 3, of course.
FIGHT: Ramirez TKO Rnd 1. Grove gets taken down early in the fight by Ramirez but sweeps and gets up. He then starts trading blows with Ramirez, and that is not a good thing. He eats a left hook and gets into the clinch with Ramirez, but you can see that his legs had buckled. He doesn't stop wanting to trade though, and Ramirez's next big left hook lands and Grove is unconscious for quite some time and has to take a stretcher ride out. (3)
3) Richard Goodman vs. Manny Tapia: Man, Tapia is 20 lbs over where his best weight is for this fight. Goodman is a lot bigger. He's 5'11''!
FIGHT: Tapia TKO Rnd 2. Tapia is really wild with his shots but really, he's just looking to set up takedowns. That's not really surprising. Goodman is actually a much more competent striker but it comes with the caveat of his grappling not being too good. He throws a flying knee, doesn't really land it, and Tapia uses it to take him down and control the round in the first. In the second, his winging punches set up the takedown and he passes rather easily to mount. He locks the arm up by getting wrist control and wrapping it around Goodman's face, and punches him with the other arm until he force Peoples to stop it due to the lack of intelligent defense. (2)
4) Frankie Bollinger vs. Joe Frainee: Frainee has been beat up Mike Guymon prior to this. Bollinger is an old school KOTC guy.
FIGHT: Frainee TKO Rnd 1. Bollinger comes straight at him looking for the clinch and takedowns, and Frainee, who is wearing the Thai shorts tonight, shows that he's not a total can and actually brings the punches. Bollinger is dropping his head and looking at the mat (a la Allan Green circa 2008) and it just means he eats punches while trying to get a takedown. Frainee just bucks him like he's kicking out in pro wrestling and that sorta destroys Bollinger's confidence. He himself gets a takedown and pounds him out against the cage for a stoppage. Frainee loses his next two and Bollinger never fights again. (0)
5) Miguel Gutierrez vs. Fernando Gonzalez: 185lb bout. Gutierrez is a Team Oyama guy.
FIGHT: Gutierrez Submission Rnd 1. He sweeps the leg in the clinch and goes straight to mount. Gonzalez tries to buck him and gets stuck in an armbar, which Gutierrez eventually finishes. Gutierrez was more effective in the pummel too, getting separation when he wanted and throwing shots. Gutierrez lost to WEC vet Alex Serdyukov in Mexico and has fought sparingly since. (0)
6) Jason Lambert vs. Marvin Eastman: Woah! This is a good fight. Eastman and Lambert are both long term journeymen who've been around for ages.
FIGHT: Lambert Split Decision. Absolutely great, competitive fight. I had it Eastman 29-28. (3)
Eastman: Eastman, in my mind, lost this fight (it you argue he did) on cardio. He ran out of gas in the middle of round 2 after having taken down Lambert and having had dropped him in the same round. He also did a very impressive amount of work in the first, perhaps aided by an early headbutt as both men clashed heads in the opening seconds. But once the gas tank went dry, Lambert was able to get back up and push Eastman to the cage. I don't think he necessarily did a lot of great work there, but leaning on a guy often gets you points. Eastman was still effective with a takedown in the 3rd and he hurt Lambert with a head kick in the closing seconds, but it was too little, too late.
Lambert: Had a style: lumpy wrassler with looping power shots. He sticks to it here. There's never any surprises about Lambert aside from having bitch tits, he does have excellent cardio. He was never the best wrestler though. You gotta remember that Lambert didn't go to junior college or anything to wrestle - he was a high school wrestler who got referred over to Williams Combat Grappling and from there to Roy Harris. Not saying he's bad, just saying that when you see him losing underhooks to Eastman and being taken down repeatedly, there's a reason for it. So much of what he did was brute force.
8) Hiroyuki Abe vs. Urijah Faber: Don't sleep on this fight thinking its just another fight and not meaningful. Abe was a can't miss prospect once. Hell, he destroyed Alexander Franca Noguiera once upon a time. He was solidly in the middle of his slump at this point though having gone 0-5-0-1 NC in his last 6. Oh, and the other guy. So, he will probably be the 135lb UFC champ and held the WEC 145lb title and is considered one of the most important little men in MMA history. Faber is the 145lb champ and is defending, so this is a potential 5 rounder.
FIGHT: Faber TKO Rnd 3. Pretty much total domination for Faber, who comes straight forwards with punches to clinch up and gets down Abe repeatedly. Abe only is effective in the second round with a trip takedown from the clinch that goes nowhere and Faber gets up from. Faber is a lot slower in terms of trying to push the pace here than he is in recent years - I think his confidence is a big factor in that along with his overall growth in skill. (4)
9) Bobby Hoffman vs. Eric Pele: Hoffman has renamed himself "The Truth" at this point in his career. He notes that the world would like to see him dump Eric Pele on his back and beat him into a pulp. Uhhh. Hoffman's eyes look dead as he stares at the ring. Eric Pele is still basically in fat mode here and this is thusly a super heavyweight title bout. Pele lost the first bout between the two.
FIGHT: Pele TKO Rnd 2. (2)
Pele: Pele has a smart strategy: Come forward, grab, push. If you put weight on the guy, he'll get tired, and that is precisely what happened. Pele has a pretty serious beard too and that meant with his advantage in power punching, he was always more likely to hurt Hoffman badly than vice versa. While Hoffman had the skill advantage and used it in round 1 and 2 to some effect, Pele eventually clocks Hoffman, hurts him, and Pele gets him to the mat. He grinds him out Roy Nelson style, and its one of his last major fights prior to retirement to tattooing permanently.
Hoffman: Hoffman uses this being a fat man fight to justify wearing a shirt into the ring. He is forced to try and fight off a rampaging 300lb man who keeps attaining the clinch, and he has to do so while being unable to hit him hard enough to get him to stop coming forwards. He does get Pele to the mat late in the 1st and almost smashes him out, but this isn't horse shoes, and close doesn't count. Some more wild swinging in the 2nd leads to him getting tagged and hurt, and that's pretty much the end of the fight.
FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Lambert/Eastman
KO OF THE NIGHT: Goodman/Tapia
SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Gutierrez/Gonzalez
OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 7 out of 10. Reasonably good show. Aside from the crummy opener, the biggest bore was honestly the Faber fight. Lambert/Eastman was a very good fight, and there were some highlight reel stoppages too. Nothing in the show is time capsule worthy, but that's OK. Its a good, solid show.
D&R Rating: 31% (14/45)
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