There’s a new champion.
The main event between Hendricks and Robbie Lawler might not have been the classic rematch its first outing hyped it up to be but another five-round clash capped off tensely a fine night of UFC and, by 5.32am, we had a new welterweight champion.
We didn’t even need to wait until the main events for the drama to kick off as both Josh Sammon and Racquel Pennington produced two of the most nasty but brilliant knockouts on the undercards.
The box office five fights didn’t let us down either.
First up, Tony Ferguson made light work of a rather lacklustre Abel Trujillo. Despite probably edging the first round – the first non-eventful round, mind you – Trujillo ran out of energy quickly in the second and Ferguson crawled all over the top of him for the duration.
Eventually, El Cucuy found his way through and strangled the life out of Abel forcing him into a second round submission. If that wasn’t bad enough for Trujillo, Ferguson commented afterwards that he knew his opponent would “blow his wad.”
The first heavyweight fight was… brief. The UFC were believed to have been inundated with complaints as tea enthusiasts who had popped the kettle on missed the entire Duffee-Hamilton bout. Todd Duffee must have a fear of octagons because he’s no sooner in the cage than he’s walking back out celebrating. He took all of 33 seconds to put Anthony Hamilton mercilessly out of his misery.
Travis Browne really turned it on in the other heavyweight clash. The most crushingly exquisite of uppercuts saw him pin Brendan Schaub to the floor and, from there, it was hammer time. Eventually, the referee had no choice but to intervene.
Anthony Pettis is a serious fighter.
The 27-year-old is getting better and better and he clinched the lightweight championship with a fine performance against Gilbert Melendez who must’ve thought he had done everything right. Melendez was in control for a lot of the first, Pettis looking frightening from range on rare occasions he was released from a grapple. But Melendez’s tactics backfired in the second round when Pettis produced an unprecedented guillotine to show that he can mix it in close as well. It was enough for Gilbert to tap out and for Pettis to take the belt.
Robbie Lawler then came after Johny Hendricks for all he was worth. The challenger in the main event wasn’t hanging around as he struck the welterweight champ time and time again. Hendricks started to assert more control of the contest towards the end of the first as he took the stung out of his opponent with the only takedown. And he won the second with a number of leg kicks, controlled grappling and, although he shipped a front kick to the chin from Lawler, Hendricks had the challenger in a choke before the buzzer came to the rescue. Lawler’s threat never waned as Hendricks somewhat fought within himself, attempting to contain his adversary. Lawler showed the most intent throughout though and Hendricks tried to run the clock down, clinging to his opponent and spoiling the clash. But Lawler soon got off the leash and went at Hendricks like a man possessed as he kicked, kneed and punched the champion in a desperate bid for a knockout. He didn’t need it. He won on a split decision. Ruthless is the top dog.
