BY JAMES BRYDON
sportsnet.ca

INDIANAPOLIS -- T.J. Grant of Cole Harbour, N.S., got back in the winner’s circle Saturday on the undercard of UFC 119: Mir vs. Cro Cop, but fellow Canadian Joe Doerksen of Winnipeg wasn’t nearly as fortunate.

Grant, who was coming off a majority-decision loss to Johny Hendricks at UFC 113 in Montreal in May, captured a three-round unanimous nod over Julio (The Dominican Demon) Paulino in the second fight of the night in front of a near-capacity crowd in Indianapolis.

The show was being held at the Conseco Fieldhouse, where the NBA’s Pacers play, in the UFC’s first trip to the state of Indiana.

Doerksen, who was riding a seven-fight win streak including a second-round submission of Tom Lawlor at the same Montreal event, was submitted himself early in the first round by a fiesty C.B. Dollaway in their middleweight tilt.

In the last fight before the pay-per-view portion of the show, the 32-year-old Doersken was able to get an early takedown only to have Dollaway grab hold of his chin and secure a guillotine choke.

Doerksen (46-13) was able to fend off the finish for a while but Dollaway kept rolling to apply more leverage. Dollaway (11-2) eventually sunk in the choke deep enough to force a tapout by the disappointed Canadian.

“I had the guillotine locked on and I was just kind of hanging out, waiting to get the hook in,” Dollaway said. “I was patient and I was able to hook the leg and end it.”

It was third straight win in the Octagon for Dollaway, a finalist of season seven of The Ultimate Fighter and he also earned the $70,000 bonus for submission of the night.

Grant (16-4) displayed superiour grappling in taking all three rounds in a welterweight bout that didn’t exactly thrill the fans in Indianapolis, who were being treated to a live UFC event for the first time.

The 26-year-old Grant, who had no answer for Hendricks’ ground game in his last bout, was facing another wrestler in Paulino and put in extensive work on his wrestling in this training camp. That was evident in the fight as Paulino, who fights out of Anchorage, Alaska, was the one who spent most of his time on his back while Grant managed four takedowns.

The crowd booed at numerous occasions as Grant worked for submission after submission without any success. But Grant controlled the fight and dominated positions, working in some ground and pound when he could, which was enough to earn the decision.

Afterward, Grant apologized to the near-capacity crowd for not putting on a more exciting fight, but credited his opponent for being tough to finish.

“I rushed a couple of submissions. I felt like my jiu-jitsu was a lot better but he was good at escaping submissions. I went for a few bread-and-butter ones but he did not get caught,” Grant said. “I felt like I should’ve thrown more strikes on the ground. He was strong though and I felt like if I gave him too much space he would escape.”

After joining the UFC on a seven-fight win streak, Paulino (17-4) has now lost both his fights in the Octagon.

In the opening bout of the night, hometown fighter Sean McCorkle made short work of Mark Hunt in his UFC debut, submitting the veteran at 1:03 of the first round. Hunt has not won an MMA fight in over four years.

McCorkle earned huge cheers from the pro-Indianapolis crowd when he entered the arena. And he quickly entertained them. Hunt came out swinging right from the opening bell, but McCorkle attempted a takedown and then instead pulled guard. McCorkle was able to get hold of an arm and torque it for a kimura and forced a very quick tapout by Hunt.

On the first televised preliminary fight, Matt Mitrione and Joey Beltran engaged in a slugfest worthy of early candidacy for fight of the night. The two showed chins of stone as each teed off on the other, but Mitrione appeared to be the better aggressor and eked out a unanimous decision victory (29-28).

Beltran stole the first round on all judges’ scorecards with a late takedown and some decent ground work, but Mitrione stuffed any such attempts in the next two frames and connected on more than enough to take both of the final two for a comeback win.

Mitrione, who has trained locally with Indianapolis native Chris Lytle, was clearly the local favourite and won over the crowd with his performance, during which he was smiling virtually the whole time.

“The crowd was great,” Mitrione said. “They were giving me advice telling me to get off the fence and turn. They were very knowledgeable.”

In the last bout before the televised preliminary fights, Thiago Tavares submitted Pat Audinwood with a guillotine choke at 3:47 of the first round. Tavares, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner with 11 career submission wins, jumped onto a standing Audinwood, who was making his UFC debut, and wrapped his legs around the body and as he sunk in a tight choke. Earlier, Waylon Lowe earned a split decision over Steve Lopez (29-28, 29-28, 28-29) in a fight that didn’t have a lot of action, but did see some blood as Lopez was cut on the head by an elbow on the ground. Referee Herb Dean stopped the fight with less than a minute to check on it and the crowd cheered when he restarted the bout.