Melvin Guillard got the short end of the stick at the Cox Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma as Nate Diaz submitted the fighter via guillotine choke in the second round. Guillard showed impressive stand up, foot work and head movement to make Diaz look amateurish and exposed big holes in his opponents stand up game. Guillard caught Diaz in the opening seconds of the fight with a massive hook that rocked Diaz to the floor. Guillard should be commended for his stand up, as his foot work and head movements nullified much of Diaz reach advantage and offset his timing. Aware of his strengths, Diaz tried to get the fight to the ground, but ended up getting thrown twice in the first round as well. Diaz’s submission victory was the cause of a takedown by Guillard in the beginning of the second round. The Sacramento based fighter immediately scrambled and transitioned to the choke to tap out his opponent in a fight he was clearly losing. Diaz escaped with the victory but may have lost more than gained showing his next opponent a huge hole in his game.
The co main event of the evening went the distance as Gray Maynard went toe to toe with actor/fighter Roger Huerta en route to a hard earned unanimous decision. Judges scored the fight 28-29, 30-27, 30-27 all in favor of Maynard. MMA WorldWide’s Marcos Villegas gave the first round to Huerta but gave the bout to Maynard. Huerta showed no signs of rust or inconsistencies in his game as he brought the fight to Maynard through out the bout. The Mexican American fighter constantly switched from orthodox to south paw stance causing a bit of hesitation in offensive by Maynard. Late in the first Huerta scored a big shot that hurt his opponent but was not able to put him away. Maynard showed a lot of fortitude as he kept his composure and survived a last minute onslaught by Huerta. It seem by the early second Maynard had more of a sense of what Huerta was bringing and was able to adapt his game plan using his wrestling background to score takedowns and taking pepper steps back to off time the ever pressuring Huerta. The ongoing push of Huerta seemed to backfire on him as by the third round the fighter had lost a lot of steam and seemed gassed. He was almost submitted by the end of the contest as Maynard was able to apply a shoulder lock that almost popped his opponents shoulder out of place. With this win, Maynard sends Huerta out of the UFC; it remains to bee seen if Huerta will continue fighting or pursue his blossoming acting career.
The undercard provided the much needed fireworks the co main event fights did not produce. Carlos Condit survived a handful of scares in the first round to sour Jake Ellenberg’s UFC debut. Condit was originally scheduled to fight Chris Lytle but a injury forced him out as Ellenberger took the fight on short notice. Though Condit won by spilt decision, the debuting Ellenberger almost put the fight away multiple times in the first round. An Ellenberg straight right rocked Condit immediately at the beginning of the first round followed soon after by a three hit combination that crumpled him again. Ellenberger soon transitioned to a darcee choke but could not fully commit. Condit got back to his feet and was hit flush on the face once more that caused him to crumple to the ground yet again. It seemed Ellenberg was on his way to victory as in the beginning of the second the fighter was able to take his opponent down. This was a blessing in disguise for Condit as he took advantage of this opportunity by attempting multiple submission attempts and scored huge with elbows from the mount. The third round could have been all Ellenberg but the exciting young fighter could no longer keep up as his failing cardio allowed Condit to take control of the final round scoring with hard shots from the top position to finish off the round. The crowd cheered both fighters as Carlos Condit etched another W onto his fight record, though Ellenberg won the fans with an exciting performance.
To sum up the Nate Quarry/Tim Credeur bout would be akin to comparing it to a bout of rock’em sock’em robots. This fight produced more knockdowns than all the other fights of the night combined and man it made for some exciting Television. Both fighters showed great heart and even more balls for withstanding the punishment inflicted on both of them. Quarry started the back and forth battle landing a huge right to the head of Credeur. Credeur was able to truck on and landed a right of his own sending Quarry to the ground and transitioned into a choke attempt. Credeur kept the slugfest momentum going as in round two he was able to land a flurry that landed flush on Quarry but Quarry instantaneously landed a huge right of his own that knocked his opponent to the ground. The rest of the round was fought on the ground as if both fighters were looking to conserve energy for the next round. It seems just that as from the start of the bell Tim Credeur came out swinging with a solid four hit combination. Quarry skillfully landed a great counter shot that knocked Credeur down once more. By the end of the round both fighters exchange in a flurry to the roar of all those in the Cox Arena. Ringside judges gave the back and forth bout to Nate Quarry by Unanimous decision, but both fighters should be applauded for such a spirited performance.
In the untelevised under card:
Brian Stann def. Steve Cantwell via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Mike Pyle def. Chris Wilson via guillotine choke - R3, 2:15
C.B. Dollaway def. Jay Silva via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Jeremy Stephens def. Justin Buchholz via TKO (cut) - R1, 3:23
Mike Pierce def. Brock Larson via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Ryan Jensen def. Steve Steinbeiss via guillotine choke - R1, 3:56
Marcos Villegas
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