UFC 108 delivers night of quick victories

By Guillaume Coufleau

UFC 108 took place on Jan. 2 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev. Two fights of the undercard aired free on Spike TV, inaugurating the series of prelims that Spike TV and the UFC have planned to telecast in 2010.  A long list of fighters withdrew due to illness or injury. The match makers finally set up a fight card headlined by Rashad Evans and Thiago Silva. Naturally, this main event didn’t cause as much excitement for fans as a championship bout between Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin would have. Nevertheless, the fight card turned out to be pretty interesting.

If Dynamite!! 2009 lasted hours with numerous fights going to the judges decision, what happened last night is the complete opposite. Six of the ten fights, and five in a row, ended up in the first round while only three went to the decision. Jake Ellenberger was near to add his name on the list as he defeated Mike Pyle in the very beginning of the second round (0:22). Without lowering the performance of the fighters, so many quick victories put the question of the relevance of the match makings.

Mark Munoz was the first to commit with a submission over Ryan Jensen at 2:30 in the opening round. Then followed the prelims that Spike TV broadcast for free. It seems that Cole Miller and Martin Kampmann didn’t want to get a long exposure here as they respectively finished their fight at 3:05 and 4:03 in the first round.

Cole Miller and Dan Lauzon exchanged hits in a furious pace. Lauzon dropped Miller with a big left hook but Miller survived and answered with a knee kick. Lauzon looked good on the ground and he worked his way to get Miller’s back. Miller though managed to reverse the situation and caught Lauzon with an inverted triangle choke. See the video of the fight here.

Kampmann and Volkmann engaged in a stand up battle trading flurries of punches. Kampmann though landed the biggest punches and eventually dropped Volkmann. As he was punishing him with hammer fists Kampmann caught Volkmann’s neck while getting to his feet and secured a guillotine choke. Video of the fight.

The main card then started with the clash between deadly striker Gilbert Yvel and rising star Junior Dos Santos. It didn’t last more than 2:07 though, time to Dos Santos to deliver a huge left hook of his own. He jumped on top of Yvel and started to pound him to make sure he wouldn’t get up. Watch Dos Santos TKO win here.

It didn’t take long either to Jim Miller to submit Duane Ludwig with an armbar. He connected with better hits and a big right hand eventually dropped Ludwig. He couldn’t keep the full mount but he transitioned to the side control and locked an armbar at 2:31 of the opening round. Duane Ludwig vs. Jim Miller full fight video

A great showing from Stout during three round against Joe Lauzon made a break in the first round-win streak. Sam Stout offered a great performance in the stand up and finally defeated Joe Lauzon by unanimous decision. The fight has been awarded the Fight of the Night honors. Joe Lauzon vs. Sam Stout full lenght fight video

Paul Daley and Dustin Hazelett have totally opposite styles and the danger for Daley was to get trapped by Hazelett’s high skilled ground game. Incredibly Hazelett started the fight with a monkey roll that probably surprised Daley as much as the audience. He then engaged in stand up exchanges with Daley and never tried to take him down. It couldn’t be better for Daley who connected with a big big left hook that knocked Hazelett down. Another couple of punches definitely turned Hazelett’s lights off at 2:24 of the first round. Paul Daley earned the KO of the Night bonus. Watch the video of the fight here.

The main event proposed a three round domination of Rashad Evans who got almost caught by Silva’s late fury.

UFC 108: Rashad Evans vs. Thiago Silva full fight video

The full results of the event are posted here.

Watch the UFC 108 post fight press conference here.