THE CANADIAN PRESS
SEATTLE — Rising light-heavyweight Phil (Mr. Wonderful) Davis got his wrestling game going after a slow start to win a unanimous decision over veteran Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in the main event of the UFC’s “Fight Night” card Saturday night.
Denied in the first round, the former NCAA wrestling champion scored takedowns in the second and third to pile up the points against Nogueira (19-5).
Davis (9-0) won his fifth UFC fight in 13 months with all three judges scoring it 30-27 in his favour.
“I was falling apart when I was in this training camp, man, I didn’t know if I could make this fight,” said Davis, citing “all types of injuries.”
The televised show at the Key Arena marked the UFC’s debut in the state of Washington.
In a co-main event that lacked sparks, welterweight Anthony (Rumble) Johnson won a unanimous 30-27 decision over England’s Dan (The Outlaw) Hardy. The fight had been expected to be a slugfest between the two strikers but the fireworks were muted as bigger Johnson took Hardy down and controlled him from the top position for most of the fight.
It was Hardy’s third straight loss.
The 34-year-old Nogueira, known as Little Nog because his twin brother is heavyweight Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, had been slated to meet Tito (The Huntington Beach Bad Boy) Ortiz. But Davis, a four-time all-American at Penn State, was brought in when the former light-heavyweight champion was forced to withdraw from an injury sustained in training.
Nogueira stuffed Davis’ early takedown attempts. Davis looked to use kicks to fend off the Brazilian’s hands.
Nogueira stalked Davis in the second, looking to lay hands on him. Davis was again denied on the takedown and Nogueira began to chip away at him. Davis finally landed a single leg takedown with two minutes remaining and began to score from above as the round ended.
Davis repeated the success with the single leg takedown in the third.
Nogueira, now 2-2 in the UFC, had his brother and middleweight champion Anderson Silva in his corner.
Johnson (9-3) had not fought since losing to Josh Koscheck at UFC 106 in November 2009 after which he had knee surgery.
Hardy (23-9 with one no contest) was coming off 2010 losses to Carlos (Natural Born Killer) Condit and champion Georges St-Pierre.
After a cautious start by both fighters, Johnson dropped Hardy with a high kick one minute into the bout and then took him down when Hardy got back up. Johnson spent the rest of the round on top of the Englishman.
Before the fight, both men said the contest would be contested on their feet but Johnson — a former junior college wrestling champion — took Hardy down again early in the second and worked him over from the top position.
It was more of the same in the third, with a failed Hardy takedown leaving the Brit on his back. When they got back to their feet, Johnson dumped him again.
Featherweight Chan Sung (The Korean Zombie) Jung took his revenge on Leonard (Bad Boy) Garcia, winning by second-round submission in a rematch of what many saw as one of the fights of the year in 2010.
Garcia (19-7-1) won a split decision when they met last April in the WEC in a wild all-action fight that many thought the Korean had won.
Garcia started well but found himself underneath Jung, taking punishment as the first round ended. Garcia did well when he kept to a technical striking game but the two started swinging as the second round neared a close, with Garcia again ending up on the ground taking punishment.
Jung ended it with a rare and nasty Twister submission, forcing Garcia to tap out with one second left to stop his neck and spine being contorted.
The UFC said it was the first Twister submission win in its history.
Jung, who was so happy he hugged interviewer Joe Rogan in the cage after the fight, said he saw the submission on one of jiu-jitsu guru Eddie Bravo’s YouTube videos.
Garcia was originally supposed to be in another rematch Saturday, but Nam Phan withdrew through injury. That opened the door for a second showdown with Jung (11-3).
Welterweight Amir Sadollah, winner of Season 7 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” stopped DaMarques (Darkness) Johnson (17-9), runner-up on Season 9, at 3:27 of the second round when Johnson tapped out due to strikes.
Sadollah used his Muay Thai attack to wear down Johnson and then put him away on the ground, trapping one of Johnson’s arms while battering him with elbows.
Sadollah (6-2) was originally slated to fight Duane (Bang) Ludwig and then James Wilks but both were forced to withdrew. Johnson took the fight on two weeks’ notice.
On the undercard, welterweight Johny Hendricks (10-1) knocked out T.J. Waldburger (13-6) at 1:35 of the first round.
Heavyweight Mike Russow defeated Jon Madsen on a doctor’s stoppage after two rounds.
Bantamweight Michael (Mayday) McDonald (12-1) earned a unanimous 30-27 decision over late replacement opponent Edward Figueroa (7-1), who had to cut 25 pounds in six days.
English welterweight John (The Hitman) Hathaway (15-1) won a split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28) over Kris (Savage) McCray (6-3).
Six-foot-six heavyweight Christian Morecraft (7-1) submitted six-foot-seven Sean McCorkle (10-2) via standing guillotine choke at 4:10 of the second round.
Featherweight Mackens Semerzier (8-3) submitted Alex Caceres (5-3) via rear naked choke at 3:18 of the first round.
