Preliminaries
The UFC 118 event was a pretty exciting one. Admittedly, there were some hits and misses but overall, it was a good showing for UFC. The event took place in Boston, Massachusetts, a first. Joe Lauzon, a native of the area seems to figure that it was, thus, his time to shine. In his match against Gabe Ruediger, he dominated, forcing his opponent into a first-round submission. This was the lightweight match and did a ton to infuse some energy into the crowd after several average matches. The original ticket had Lauzon going up against Terry Etim, who would be injured before the fight. Reudiger, from ‘The Ultimte Fighter 5,’ fame took his place. The two eventual opponents would throw several verbal barbs before the fight. Perhaps Ruediger should have kept quiet because he was completely overwhelmed once the match started.

Ruediger perhaps was an average opponent. He wasn’t a standout on Ultimate Fightgher, failing to even make weight after gorging himself on chocolate cake and trying to undo the damage via a colonic. However, his performances of late, earned him a second chance. He had won 6 fights in a row and participated in the Tachi Palace Fights championships. However, his good fortunate would run out against Lauzon, who took it to him early and hard. Lauzon dominated from beginning to end. Lauzon’s record is now 19-5 and 6-2 in the UFC. Reudiger has a 17-6 record with 0 wins (out of 2) in the UFC.

Also on the UFC 118 ticket was Andre Winner versus Nik Lentz. Lentz would win via a unanimous decision. The match was a bit of a disappointment. Winner, from the United Kingdom and runner up for ‘The Ultimate Fighter 9’ couldn’t do much right. He was susceptible to the take down and seemed to have all of the fight sucked out of him. Most of the fighting took place on the mat or in the clinch.

Dan Miller impressed in this match against John Salter in the middleweight division. He would go on to win, putting a stop to the 3 fight slide, he recently experienced. Miller would pull out a submission victory. Starting out hot with a 3-0 record in the UFC, fighters in the elite division, Michael Bisping, Chael Sonnen and Demian Maia, put an end to “beginners luck.” Miller would compete well. However, he ended up losing his next three fights on decision. After Phil Baroni went down, who was originally on the card, Miller got a chance to right things and he took full advantage, winning 1:53 into the second round.

In the Welterweight division, Greg Soto, would beat Nick Osipczak, in an exciting, come-from-behind win, which likely helped him continue his career as a UFC fighter.

Mike Pierce would end up beating Amilcar Alves in three rounds. Pierce, a former college wrestler, was able to takedown his opponent easily. With that win, the lightweight fighter’s overall record is 12-3 MMA and 3-1 UFC. Avles goes to 11-2 MMA and 0-1 UFC.

Main Card
Defending champion, Frankie Edgar would beat BJ Penn in a unanimous decision. The scores were 50-45, 50-45, 50 -45. Edgar remains the UFC Lightweight Champion.

James Toney was beaten by Randy Couture via an arm triangle choke, submission. Demian Maia beat Mario Miranda by unanimous decision. The scores were 30-27, 30-27, 30-27. Gray Maynard beat Kenny Florian, by unanimous decision. Marcus Davis lost to Nate Diaz after Diaz forced Davis to submit via a guillotine choke. The fight lasted three rounds.

Tags: 118, Recap, UFC

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