Reza Madadi and Michael Johnson almost got into it on stage at the weigh-ins. When they both got into the cage, they marched towards each other in the centre of the Octagon even before Bruce Buffer had introduced them. Once the fight actually got started, it was the entertaining, back-and-forth that we expected.
The relentless Madadi looked for takedowns from the start, but was kept at bay by Johnson in the first. The former Ultimate Fighter winner found his range, maintained distance with his jab, and late in the frame, rocked Madadi with a left high kick. Though “The Menace” pushed for the finish, Madadi survived, and from there, the wildly popular Swedish fighter was in complete control.
In the second and third, Madadi was able to bring the fight to the ground and dominate Johnson, landing with plenty of elbows and hammerfists in the second, all the while looking for submission attempts. As the third started, Madadi dragged Johnson to the floor, worked for position, and baited the former TUF finalist into an anaconda choke.
Madadi locked up the hold, tightened up his squeeze, and forced Johnson to tap. The 32-year-old lightweight has now won eight of his last nine, with the only blemish coming in a questionable split decision defeat against Cristiano Marcello last October in Brazil. After rocketing up the rankings in early 2012, Johnson has now lost consecutive contests.
Much to the delight of the partisan crowd, Umea, Sweden’s Tor Troeng earned an impressive first-round finish over TUF 17 housemate Adam Cella on Saturday.
The experienced UFC newcomer quickly got the fight to the ground, and proceeded to show off his superior grappling game, quickly arriving in side control and threatening to pass. Cella tried to muscle out, but as he rolled to avoid getting mounted, Troeng took his back, sunk in the hooks, and started working towards the finish.
Team Sonnen’s Troeng flattened out his Team Jones counterpart, sunk in the rear naked choke, and collected a quick tap from Cella, causing the crowd at the Ericsson Globe Arena to erupt. Troeng moves to 17-4 with the win, while Cella drops to 4-1 overall.
Add Adlan Amagov’s name to the list of former Strikeforce competitors to have an impressive showing in their UFC debut. After competing at middleweight in the past, the Chechen talent dropped to welterweight for his initial UFC appearance, and put forth a strong performance in defeating Chris Spang in Sweden.
Amagov put all his weapons on display in this one, throwing and landing a number of spinning attacks, including a slick little spinning calf kick. The 26-year-old also showed off his wrestling game, connecting on a picturesque belly-to-back suplex in third. That big slam was set up by Amagov’s ability to launch headkicks at Spang while having his hands cinched around his waist from behind.
We’ve seen flyweight champ Demetrious Johnson do it before, but never a welterweight, until now. Amagov moves to 12-2-1 with the win.
There was a lot of hype surrounding Conor McGregor heading into his first UFC appearance, and the former two-division Cage Warriors champion backed up on Saturday.
McGregor needed just 67 seconds to finish Marcus Brimage, who entered the bout on a three-fight winning streak in the UFC. The charismatic Irish featherweight stood in the pocket looking to exchange, and rocked Brimage with a sharp uppercut. A couple well-placed bombs put the former Ultimate Fighter contestant on the canvas, and McGregor pounced, pounding out the win to begin what could be a rapid climb up the rankings in the 145-pound division.
Many newcomers have seen their unbeaten record disappear in their UFC debut, but Ryan LaFlare is not one of them. The Lindenhurst, New York native used his superior wrestling attack to control and neutralize Ben Alloway en route to a unanimous decision win in his first appearance in the Octagon.
Though he tired as the fight wore on, LaFlare did a very good job of timing his shots, and capitalizing on Alloway’s aggressiveness in the stand-up, dipping under big swings to get the fight on the floor. Each time Alloway tried to counter, LaFlare had an answer, and earned himself the eighth consecutive win of his career with a clean sweep of the scorecards.
Tom Lawlor didn’t look like Tom Lawlor to start his fight with Michael Kuiper. There was no comedic, fan-friendly entrance – though his use of “Goodbye Horses” was enjoyed by the early morning Twitter set – and in the opening round, his grinding, pressure wrestling was ineffective.
Kuiper dominated the first, using his strong judo base to fend off takedowns, and put Lawlor on his back at various times. Lawlor appeared to hurt his knee as he stumbled on an entry late in the round, and ended up eating some ground-and-pound because of it.
While he lost the first, Lawlor quickly turned things around in the second, capitalizing on a lazy takedown attempt by Kuiper to sink in a deep arm-in guillotine choke. Once he had his hands connected, Lawlor pulled guard, and squeezed, eventually eliciting the tap from Kuiper.
In the opening fight of the evening, Swedish welterweights Papy Abedi and Besam Yousef went shot-for-shot, takedown-for-takedown over 15 minutes of entertaining action.
Abedi took the first, scoring a pair of takedowns — one early, and a second late to seal the round — with both men landing some good, crisp shots when they were standing. In the second, the two welterweights traded shots in the clinch for much of the round, with Yousef landing over the top with elbows, and Abedi connecting on a trip takedown. Round 3 was controlled by Yousef, as he overcame an early takedown, collecting one of his own, and clearly edging out the tiring Abedi to the final bell.
The scoring of the middle frame proved to be the difference, as two judges awarded the round — and the contest — to Abedi.
