UFC 95 = Fast Stoppages

I missed the first hour of UFC 95 last night, but it seems that the first hour was just like the following 2 hours.

Josh Koscheck lost in the first round by ref stoppage KO. From what I have read, Josh Koscheck was pretty much running the show until he got caught with a few good hits that sent him to the floor without Paulo Thiago even following up before the ref stopped it. The fans were not happy with this stoppage and I probably would not have been either.

Demian Maia VS. Chael Sonnen: Chael Sonnen loses to a triangle choke in round one. This is Sonnen’s first UFC fight since 2006 (lost to Jeremy Horn at UFC 60) and only his second professional loss in 9 fights. Hopefully we’ll get to see more of Chael Sonnen in the UFC despite this loss.

Wilson Gouveia vs. Nate Marquardt: This was an interesting match but Nate Marquardt pretty much dominated the entire fight before the ref stopped the fight in the third giving Nate the TKO by strikes. Nate Marquardt wants a chance at Anderson Silva, but I don’ think he’s really ready for Silva…but is anyone ready for The Spider?

Dan Hardy kept is fight with Rory Markham short and under 2 minutes. He also backed up his word. He talked a lot of trash coming in to this fight and he did knocked Rory out. Markham came in at Hardy with a big right, which Hardy kind of avoided and countered with a huge straight left that put Markham out and on his back. Hardy followed up with two more big hits before the ref stopped the fight. Hardy wins at 1:09 in round one with a knockout punch.

The televised a couple of prelim card fights to which we saw Heavyweight Mike Ciesnolevicz defeat Neil Grove with a heel hook that Grove may be taking some time off to recover from. We also saw Evan Dunham defeat Per Eklund fairly quickly in the first round. Dunham doesn’t look like much, but he took Eklund out pretty easily. Lastly we saw Terry Etim defeat Brian Cobb. This was another fast ref stoppage. I think Cobb would have lost anyway, but the ref was quick to stop this one.

Diego Sanchez defeated Joe Stevenson by unanimous decision. Diego Sanchez played it safe through every round and worked some great combos. He once again proved that he has an iron chin. He didn’t go for the ground and pound that we often see from The Nightmare, but kept it standing and feeding Stevenson with combos. I think Stevenson is relying too much on the guillotine these days and perhaps Sanchez is right saying that he’s not evolving as a fighter.

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