TUF 9′s finale turned out to be a night of many great fights and a continuation victory for the UK with 3 finalists to one America.
Ross Pearson & Andre Winner battled it out over three rounds with a mix of striking and pushing each other up against the cage wall. Ross Pearson went on to claim the UFC contract with a unanimous decision.
Representing the UK for the welterweight contract was James Wilks against DaMarques Johnson. Wilks had two fights in the house against Frank Lester and both times showed his technical approach and a his abilty to fight as a mixed martial artist with some great strikes, knee’s and great ground work. Against the USA favourite he showed the same approach with some good striking and very good ground game until he managed the hook the arm under Johnson’s chin to get the submission with a rear naked choke.
Diego Sanchez vs Clay Guida was a War as expected. Both fighters came out psyched and trying to stare the other down. Right from the off they went at each other in flurry of punches until Sanchez came out on top and stuck Guida with a few hooks which left him bloodied with his back against the wall in retreat. Sanchez’s onslaught continued until Guida mananged to get the takedown, however Sanchez got to his feet to connect a left kick to Guida’s head, knocking him over and bringing the fight to the ground again.
Round two went to the floor with Guida trying to contain Sanchez to ground’n'pound his way back, but far from resorting to damage limitation Sanchez was traded blows from his back including some damagaing elbows to the top of Guida’s head. The third round fell to Sanchez whose striking again got the better of Guida, although Guida managed to take the fight to the ground once.
In the end the fight went to Sanchez via a split decision. When this is compared to Pearson’s unanimaous you do wonder how consistant these judges score as Sanchez was clearly the winner over Guida, much more so then Pearson over Andrea Winner.
- Diego Sanchez def. Clay Guida via split decision (28-29, 29-27, 29-28)
- James Wilks def. DaMarques Johnson via submission (rear naked choke) — Round 1, 4:54
- Chris Lytle def. Kevin Burns via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- Ross Pearson def. Andre Winner via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- Joe Stevenson def. Nate Diaz via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- Melvin Guillard def. Gleison Tibau via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
- Brad Blackburn def. Edgar Garcia via split decision (29-28, 28-28, 29-28)
- Tomasz Drwal def. Mike Ciesnolevicz via TKO (strikes) — Round 1, 4:48
- Nick Osipczak def. Frank Lester via submission (rear naked choke) — Round 1, 3:40
- Jason Dent def. Cameron Dollar via submission (anaconda choke) — Round 1, 4:46
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