Stay tuned to https://mmainsight.com this evening for all the results live as they happen from UFC 145 in Atlanta.
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Main Card:
Jon Jones defeats Rashad Evans by unanimous decision (49-46 x2, 50-45)
Rory MacDonald defeats Che Mills by TKO at 2.20mins of Rd2
Ben Rothwell defeats Brendan Schaub by TKO at 1.10mins
Michael McDonald defeats Miguel Torres by KO at 3.18mins of Rd1
Eddie Yagin defeats Mark Hominick by split decision (29-28 x2, 28-29)
Mark Bocek defeats John Alessio by unanimous decision (30-27 x2, 29-28)
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Prelims:
Travis Browne defeats Chad Griggs by submission (arm triangle) at 2.29mins of Rd1
Browne brought an end to a string of decisions so far this evening by steamrollering former Strikeforce heavyweight Griggs. It wasn’t long before things went downhill for Griggs in this fight as a big flying knee from Browne bounced off his chin. Browne then seized the muay thai clinch in order to secure another few knee strikes before taking the dazed Griggs to the floor. Browne then moves to mount briefly and sets up an arm triangle choke, slipping off to the side easily to secure it. Griggs throws some punches in vain, but there’s no way he’s getting out of this and he’s forced to tap.
Matt Brown defeats Stephen Thompson by unanimous decision (30-27 x2, 29-27)
Brown managed to derail the hype train of talented striker Thompson tonight. From the opening bell Brown pressed forward and gave Thompson little time and space to work his impressive arsenal of kicks. It would be the ground game that would really expose the holes in Thompson’s game though, starting with a series of takedowns in the remainder of the first round. In the second Brown looks a little tired after his early excertions on the mat and Thompson presses forward on the offensive. He seems a little weary himself though and his usually deadly kicks appear labored. His punches still have some dig in them though and he appears to have Brown hurt and in defensive mode at one point. Brown rallied though and landed a big elbow that put Thompson on the mat, and then followed up with more elbow strikes on the ground which opened up a significant cut on his forehead to end the round on a high. Both fighters were clearly exhausted heading into the final five minutes. Thompson had pretty much abandoned kicks by this stage, but his punches were still doing some damage and Brown was hurt by another flurry of strikes. That’s the cue for Brown to look for another takedown, and he eventually gets it and moves into side control. From their he gets a crucifix and then switches to a mounted triangle and with the bloodied Thompson going nowhere he’s able to close out the final minute of the fight raining down unanswered blows to his head. No doubt about the winner here and Thompson’s clearly got a lot of work still to do in order to bring his ground game up to the same level as his striking.
Anthony Njokuani defeats John Makdessi by unanimous decision (30-27 x3)
This was another fight that looked good on paper, but never really delivered on it’s promise. Njokuani did a good job of using lateral movement to keep the much smaller Makdessi at range and picked his moments to pepper him with kicks from a safe distance, in particular targetting his lead leg, leaving his whole thigh red and swollen by the mid-way point of the fight. Makdessi never stopped pressing forward though, but despite constantly walking down Njokuani he never got a real feel for the range between them and seemed to hesitant to get his own kicks and punches going. All too often he swiped out with side kicks which missed their target, and despite pleas from his corner he never looked like turning up the heat and landing a finishing blow, and so Njokuani was able to comfortably cruise to a clean sweep on the judges scorecards.
Mac Danzig defeats Efrain Escudero by unanimous decision (30-27 x2, 29-28)
The most significant action of this fight happened early in the first round when Danzig took Escudero down only to immeditely find himself caught in a heel hook submisison. It looked very tight, but he stayed calm and after readjusting his position he slickly managed to spin out of it and end up on top again. What didn’t become apparent until later was just how much damage the submission attempt had on Danzig’s ankle, with it becoming clearly badly swollen by the later rounds. That didn’t throw Danzig off his stride att all though and he was the more offensive fighter from their on, utilizing a lot of clinch work to outmuscle Escudero en-route to a decision win.
Chris Clements defeats Keith Wisniewski by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27)
This was a fun and competitive fight from start to finish. Wisniewski scored a nice takedown early in the first and looked much more comfortable on the ground, though Clements was able to open up a cut on his forehead with a short elbow. Wisniewski was landing some nice ground and pound and working to improve his position well, so it was a surprise when the referee suddenly stood them up. Clements woud capitalize on that gift later in the round when he landed a spinning kick to the liver which dropped Wisniewski to the mat. He recovered quickly though and stuffed Clements attempts to finish him on the ground by threatening with a triangle choke. Onto the second round and for the first half they trade on the feet with Clements throwing some big overhands and spinning backfists. Later Wisniewski landed another nice takedown and was able to take Clements back and attempt a rear-naked choke, but couldn’t find the finish. Clements then landed a series of powerful elbows backwards to his opponents face while Wisniewski was underneath him, and they exchanged blows in this awkward position to close the round. All to play for in the third and it was Clements who looked to have more in the tank and continued to throw bombs, but Wisniewski showed a good chin and kept coming forward, though he wasn’t offering much offensively. Towards the end of the round Clements scored big with an aggressive exchange, clipping his opponent with a hook and then landing a knee to the chin which dropped him. He swarmed looking for a finish, but though he got a few good shots in he couldn’t stop him and had to settle for the decision victory.
Marcus Brimage defeats Maximo Blanco by split decision (30-27, 29-28, 28-29)
Strangely these two normally exciting fighters managed to produce a rather uneventful fight to kick off the prelim card. Despite Blanco having an advantage on the ground the fight was fought entirely on the feet, and in somewhat cagey fashion. Brimage was the aggressor in round one, pressing forward and landing the better shots, but in the second round Blanco started to find a home for his front kicks to the face, and that seemed to make Brimage more cautious with his own attacks. In the third neither man did anything particularly noteworthy, but Brimage was slightly busier, and that was enough to earn him the nod on the judges scorecards. The best bit of the fight came after the final bell when the two men tried to outdo each other with a series of acrobatic flips. Perhaps if they had used all that excess energy in the fight it would have been more enjoyable.
