It was, for the most part, a humdrum show when the UFC set up shop in Hamburg for the first time.
Rare glimpses of excitement were peppered into the uneventful preliminary fight card but there was more than one stinker throughout the evening.
You couldn’t accuse Ryan Bader or Ilir Latifi of that, that’s for sure.
TIMBERRR!!! https://t.co/VaxKmQu1Ja
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) September 4, 2016
And if Bader’s thunderous knee raised your heart rate, the opening moments of the main event may well have given you palpitations as a pair of veterans insisted on closing the event out in style.
Josh Barnett and Andrei Arlovski had somehow gone through their careers without crossing paths in some promotion or another but they wasted no time in getting to know each other when, at the respective ages of 38 and 37, they sprinted out of the traps in Hamburg’s headliner.
.@AndreiArlovski vs @JoshLBarnett starts full throttle!? #UFCHamburg https://t.co/e7X27mqxRq
— BT Sport UFC (@btsportufc) September 3, 2016
It was clear that this was never going to see the 25th minute as heavyweights are not exactly renowned for their staying power after a starts as frenetic as that.
Both men made it to their stools at the end of the first but, visibly fatigued, the pace slowed considerably in the second frame.
Barnett managed his gastank the better and got the fight where he was most comfortable at the end of the second and beginning of the third as he repeatedly took top position over ‘The Pit Bull’.
After looking for his patented kimura – sorry, double wrist lock – Barnett decided against that manoeuvre and pounded away from mount, prompting Arlovski to give up his back.
The Warmaster does it in Germany! @JoshLBarnett wins the main event with a submission.? #UFCHamburg https://t.co/njFSE4K3Z5
— BT Sport UFC (@btsportufc) September 3, 2016
‘The Warmaster’ sunk in a rear naked choke, drew the tap and got right back into the win column.
“It’s one at a time,” Barnett said after the victory. “And I’m sure a heavyweight championship fight could be in the future. But right now, all I was concerned with was fighting Andrei, taking him very seriously, and doing what I could to come out on top, and then moving on from there.”
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