"Alistair Overeem retires Brock Lesnar, earning himself a title shot. Nate Diaz and Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone deliver fight of the night. Johny Hendricks knocks out Jon Fitch in 12 seconds."
Friday December 30th, in the last UFC event of 2011, Alistair Oveeem (36-11-1) defeated Brock Lesnar (5-3) via TKO at 2:26 of the first round, in the main event of UFC 141.Before the fight, Overeem promised to get the job done within two rounds and he delivered with a great performance in the biggest fight of his career.
Overeem stood on the outside, and used his K-1 level striking to keep Brock at a distance. The distance took away Lesnar's wrestling, and forced Brock to play right into Overeem's game. Overeem took full advantage and burned Lesnar with vicious knees and shots to Lesnar's surgically repaired body.
The end came when Overeem landed a big kick to Lesnar's liver, which dropped the former UFC Heavyweight Champion, causing him to cover up and wait for the referee to stop the contest.
Overeem's victory, sets him up to next fight Junior dos Santos for the UFC Heavyweight Championship.
However, the event was not all smiles as during the post fight interview, Brock Lesnar officially announced his retirement from the sport.
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The last two years have been very difficult for Lesnar, due to his disease with diverticulitis and I believe this was the best move for him. Lesnar has been a fighter his whole career, however his biggest fight has always been with his health and I hope Lesnar gets better.
MMA fans have to respect Brock Lesnar, because the man made a huge impact and contribution to the sport.
Brock had the toughest road for any athlete to ever compete in MMA as from the beginning of his career he was thrown to the sharks in the deep end of the pool. Brock's first fight in the UFC was against former champion Frank Mir and his third was against UFC hall of famer Randy Couture.
Lesnar never had an easy fight in his MMA career, and one look at his opponents shows what great leaps and bounds he made in such a short period of time.
Still, I can't help but wonder what Lesnar would have done in MMA had he been healthy. The guy is a freakish athlete, who is a legit 265 pounds, but moves like he is 100 lbs. lighter.
However I'm happy Lesnar won the most important fight against a potential life threatening illness. Lesnar did what he could and deserves nothing but absolute respect.
If anything, I' sure Vince McMahon is happy as this could potentially mean a return for Brock Lesnar and the F5 in the WWE.
The co-main event of the night, was my most anticipated fight on the card and it delivered as Nate Diaz (15-7) and Donald Cerrone (17-4-1NC) was nothing but fireworks and the fight of the night.
There was a lot of bad blood heading into this contest and both fighters badly wanted to defeat each other. However, it was Diaz who put forth the best performance of his career and earned a unanimous decision victory. Diaz was surgically precise with his boxing and landed brilliant, stiff, accurate, sharp punches in bunches throughout the bout, overwhelming Cerrone.
Cerrone ate a lot of punches throughout the fight and looked like a stationary target with little to no head movement. While this was uncharacteristic for Cerrone, Diaz deserves more of the credit because he shined when it came to the sweet science of MMA and moved one step closer to earning a UFC Lightweight Championship opportunity.
In the other featured contest of the evening, it took only 12 seconds for Johny Hendricks (12-1) to become the newest Welterweight contender.
Taking on Jon Fitch (23-4-1-1NC), the number two Welterweight in the world, Hendricks delivered the perfect punch for a huge knockout win.
With his only loss to Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre, Fitch came into this bout with a 13-1-1 record inside the UFC. However, he was sent back to the drawing board after he was tagged with a big left hand courtesy of Hendricks that put him completely stiff on the mat and wrestling the referee.
Welcome to the big time Johny Hendricks and a SportsCenter top 10 list.
Alexander Gustafsson also made loud noise, as he knocked out Vladimir Matyushenko via TKO in the first round and could be in line for a big 2012.
Fight of the Night: Nate Diaz vs. Donald Cerrone
Knockout of the Night: Johny Hendricks
Submission of the Night: None
Results:
Alistair Overeem def. Brock Lesnar via TKO (strikes) - Round 1, 2:26
Nate Diaz def. Donald Cerrone via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Johny Hendricks def. Jon Fitch via knockout (punches) - Round 1, 0:12
Alexander Gustafsson def. Vladimir Matyushenko via TKO (punches) - Round 1, 2:13
Jim Hettes def. Nam Phan via unanimous decision (30-25, 30-25, 30-26)
Ross Pearson def. Junior Assuncao via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Danny Castillo def. Anthony Njokuani via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Dong Hyun Kim def. Sean Pierson via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Jacob Volkmann def. Efrain Escudero via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Diego Nunes def. Manny Gamburyan via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
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