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UFC 133: The long and the short of it all

Roar Guru
8th August, 2011
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Rashad Evans brought a brutal end to the fairytale comeback of Tito Ortiz at Sunday’s UFC 132, while simultaneously securing his position as the top challenger to the light heavyweight title.

It was a beautiful and clinical performance by Evans who secured the TKO victory, late in the second round with a pinpoint knee to the rib cage of Ortiz.

Barring a couple of dangerous submission attempts by ‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy”, it was pretty much one-way traffic prior to the stoppage.

Evans utilised his massive speed advantage to outwork Ortiz and batter him on the ground. Ortiz was gallant in defeat but he was never really in the contest.

At the post-fight press conference, Evans made his thoughts clear about the upcoming title bout between Jon Jones and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, saying that he wants Jones to win as he wants to “teach him a lesson”.

The results of the main event were quite possibly overshadowed by the attire choice of welterweight, Dennis Hallman earlier in the night.

Heading into the bout, you would have thought that Hallman would have had to have done something pretty special to outdo Brian Ebersole’s manscaped arrow. But outdo him he did, as he showed up to the cage wearing the smallest pair of blue underpants imaginable.

Hallman, most likely regretted his fashion choice this morning, as he not only sustained a brutal first round TKO to Ebersole, but also drew the ire of UFC President Dana White, who stated he was disgusted by the “manties” and went as far to award Ebersole a $70,000 “get those shorts off TV as fast as possible” bonus at the post-fight press conference.

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In the night’s co-main event, Vitor Belfort once again revitalised the legend of “Old Vitor” by blitzing a hapless Yoshihiro Akiyama in just one minute and fifty-two seconds.

The last couple of punches to a prone Akiyama were dubious but the knockout was enough to earn the KO bonus at the post-fight press conference.

22-year-old Canadian, Rory MacDonald earned lofty praise from UFC commentator, Joe Rogan, after he dispatched wily veteran, Mike Pyle in emphatic fashion.

MacDonald showcased an incredible array of skills that defied his young age and had Rogan stating that he believes MacDonald has more potential than current UFC welterweight champion, Georges St. Pierre.

In the final bout on the show’s pay-per-view broadcast, Constantinos Philippou notched the biggest win of his career when he was awarded a split decision over grizzled veteran, Jorge Rivera.

The highlight of the fight was the second round that saw Philippou come ridiculously close to stopping Rivera only for “El Conquistador” to reverse the situation and then come close to finishing the fight himself.

In the night’s preliminary action, Chad Mendes maintained his position as the rightful next challenger to Jose Aldo’s featherweight title, with a wide unanimous decision victory over Rani Yahya.

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If the UFC were to select the next title challenger based on strength of record, then Mendes is by far, the standout choice; however the uneventful nature of the bout could see Mendes get stepped over by a more exciting challenger.

Alexander Gustaffson rocketed up the UFC’s light heavyweight ranks as he used Matt Hamill as his coming out party with a clinical second round TKO.

The win moves Gustaffson to 4-1 in the UFC, with his only loss coming to super-prospect, Phil Davis.

While technically on the preliminary card, entertaining scraps between welterweights, Johnny Hendricks and Mike Pierce and featherweights, Ivan Menjivar and Nick Pace were aired at the conclusion of the Evans/Ortiz bout.

Hendricks and Menjivar furthered their rise up their divisions with a split decision and unanimous decision respectively.

In the other two bouts on the card, former WEC featherweight champion, Mike Brown got back in the win column after two straight losses with a clear unanimous decision win over former ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ contestant, Nam Phan, while Rafael Natal kicked off the night with a lacklustre unanimous decision over Paul Bradley.

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