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Aldo KO’s Gamburyan,
Cerrone Bests Varner
Oct-1-2010
By Frank Curreri
 Broomfield,
Colo. – Who’s next for Jose Aldo?
Whoever it is would be wise to perfect defending his lead leg from
kicks because Aldo just might be MMA’s most brutal leg kicker as he
showed yet again during a relatively effortless knockout victory
over No.1 contender Manny Gamburyan on Thursday night at the 1st
Bank Center.
The WEC featherweight champ from Brazil masterfully executed the
same blueprint that has worked so many times before. He loosened
Gamburyan up with vicious leg kicks in the first round, even
buckling the Judo black belt. In the second round, with Gamburyan
wary of those kicks, Aldo went upstairs and dropped Gamburyan with a
potent uppercut. Gamburyan fell to his knees and Aldo quickly
pounced and hammered away with hard shots until his foe went limp
and referee Herb Dean intervened at 1:32 of the second round.
“In the first round I was just studying to see what he was doing,”
said Aldo, who improved to 18-1 and has now defeated Urijah Faber,
Mike Brown and Gamburyan (13-6) without revealing the slightest
vulnerability. “If it’s up to me my reign will last forever.”
The victory marked the 24-year-old Aldo’s second successful title
defense. The Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and former
semi-professional soccer player has not tasted defeat in nearly five
years.
The co-main event, the grudge rematch between Donald Cerrone and
Jamie Varner, had most at 1st Bank Center on the edge of their
seats. How many fights have you watched where two guys repeatedly
talk about how much they don’t like each other and yet, when they
step inside of the cage and get the chance to crack the other guy in
the mouth, all they do is dance around and feel each other out for
minutes on end? Thankfully, this wasn’t one of those letdowns. The
ill will was apparent from the get-go with Cerrone, in particular,
storming after the former WEC lightweight kingpin at the opening
horn just as you would expect from a man who has been fuming for 20
months to avenge a loss to his arch-rival.
Simply put: this was a Donald Cerrone unlike any we’ve seen before.
To a heavy chorus of “Cowboy! Cowboy!” Cerrone delivered his finest
15 minutes ever inside of the cage. Branded a slow starter, he
jumped on the Arizonan early and was the aggressor throughout.
Normally vulnerable to big punches and takedowns, his defense was
more stout on both counts (Varner, a former collegiate wrestler,
failed to score a takedown). And, in a surprise twist that Varner
would later concede caught him off-guard, Cerrone put Varner on his
back three times with double-leg takedowns. He battered Varner’s
lead leg with kicks, cracked him with knees to the face and body,
and even momentarily dropped Varner with a hard straight left hand
in the first round.
The outcome was never in doubt as the homegrown Coloradan’s face
showed little wear afterward while Varner’s face was covered in
blood. Judges awarded Cerrone a well-deserved unanimous decision by
scores of 30-27 across the board.
“Jamie, if you want a rematch in Arizona I’d be more than happy to
give it to you,” said Cerrone. “I’ll give you a rematch.”
Cerrone was asked whether the simmering feud is now squashed.
“Nah, hell no,” he said, shaking his head.
Varner took his defeat in stride.
“I put on a good fight,” Varner said. “He’s tough, he fought a lot
better so my hat’s off to him. That was a different Donald Cerrone…
he mixed it up a lot more than the first time we fought.”
In other WEC action Thursday night:
Charlie Valencia vs. Miguel Torres
He wanted to show fans that he wasn’t slipping, wasn’t in decline,
that his best days inside of the cage were not behind him. And,
based on his performance tonight, Miguel Angel Torres looks like he
may indeed be revitalized and poised to make another run at the WEC
bantamweight crown he once held. The colorful 29-year-old snapped a
two-fight losing streak with a thorough thrashing of Charlie
Valencia, forcing the veteran fighter to tap due to a rear naked
choke at 2:25 of the second round.
Now training in Montreal under Firas Zahabi, Georges St-Pierre’s
head coach, Torres seemed much more tentative and calculating early
in the bout, eschewing the relentless hard-charging punching
combinations and risk-taking that defined his style in the past.
This much-improved defense proved difficult for Valencia to
penetrate, yet when Torres saw an opening – as he did late in the
first-round – he put Valencia on his rump with a combination and
then ferociously unleashed 16 unanswered punches on top and added an
elbow for good measure.
Another Torres right hand hurt Valencia early in the second. The
southern Californian went down again and covered up as Torres dished
out more damage on top, setting into motion the scramble and choke
that would halt the bout.
In victory, Torres improved his official record to 37-3; Valencia
fell to 12-6.
George Roop vs. Chan Sung Jung
Hard luck has had a way of following George Roop around, from
growing up dirt poor, to losing fights because of bad decisions, to
burying a young son last year. The lanky 28-year-old predicted that
his fight against Chan Sung Jung (better known as “The Korean
Zombie”) would be the turning point in his up-and-down four-year
career. The Ultimate Fighter reality TV show veteran, fighting on
his first-ever main card under the Zuffa umbrella, wanted people to
finally know his name. They just might now after Roop’s devastating
high-kick knockout over Jung in Broomfield.
The Tucson, Ariz., native had controlled the first-round with a
methodical assortment of punches and kicks. The heavy-handed Jung,
meanwhile, kept hunting for a homerun shot that never surfaced. The
South Korean, coming off a potential Fight of The Year performance
against Leonard Garcia, lived up to his nickname by habitually
walking through punches, holding his hands dangerously low and
throwing caution to the wind. At 1 minute and 30 seconds of the
second round, Roop made the flamboyant South Korean pay with a
show-stopping shin to the jaw. Jung fell to the canvas like a ton of
bricks, out cold. Roop, now just the third man to defeat Jung,
celebrated by putting his hands together in a “go to sleep” gesture.
Leonard Garcia vs. Mark Hominick
The resurgence of Mark Hominick continued tonight on the strength of
a crisp and persistent left jab that carried him to a split decision
victory over Leonard Garcia. In a bout that never hit the mat, it
was Garcia who got off to a quick start, controlling round one with
a diverse and surprisingly technical attack that included punching
combinations and kicks. Hominick found his groove in the second
round, getting the better of the standup exchanges behind a left jab
he seemed to land at will.
Garcia certainly kept it interesting with his own combinations and
kicks, but in the end it was the left jab that spelled his undoing,
prompting two judges to adjudicate the fight 29-28 for Hominick,
while the other judge gave the nod to the “Bad Boy” by the same
margin.
Hominick improved to 19-8 and has now prevailed in four straight and
six of his past seven, making him a serious contender to watch in
the featherweight division.
Tiequan Zhang vs. Pablo Garza
In a battle of unbeatens, Zhang, the first fighter from mainland
China to ever compete in the WEC, shined in his U.S. debut by
putting away Garza in the first round with his signature guillotine
choke. The 25-year-old pushed his professional record to 17-0 – and
has never allowed one of his bouts to see the second round.
“I’m so excited, I have so much support and I’m just happy to
fight,” Zhang said afterward. “I didn’t know if it (the submission)
was going to happen or not. I just take every opportunity as it
comes.”
In defeat, Garza fell to 10-1.
Mike Thomas Brown vs. Cole Province
Coming off a knockout loss to Manny Gamburyan, Mike Brown rebounded
in impressive style with a 78-second demolition of former 4-time
Division II national wrestling champion Cole Province. Province
scored early with a few punches before being rocked and floored by
an uppercut from the former WEC featherweight champ. Brown followed
him to the mat and let loose a bevy of thunderous blows on his
covered-up foe, prompting the referee to halt the bout. Province
instantly jumped to his feet and confronted the ref to protest
stoppage, but it was a moot point.
“It’s like one of my coaches says, it’s a new chapter, turn the
page,” said Brown, who improved to 24-6.
Province, meanwhile, fell to 7-2, 1 NC.
Chris Horodecki vs. Ed Ratcliff
Ed Ratcliff fought the third round of this bout with an alarming
conservatism, as if he presumed he were up two rounds to none on the
judges’ scorecards, needing only to make it to the finish line to
have his hand raised.
Chris Horodecki, on the other hand, was at his most aggressive in
the final stanza, unleashing combinations with his fists and kicks
with his feet at his showboating foe. In the end, it was Horodecki
who walked away with a split decision triumph by scores of 30-27,
30-27 and 28-29.
The first two rounds seemed nip-and-tuck, with the speedy Ratcliff
landing the harder shots but Horodecki being busier and more active.
A crisp, straight right hand by Ratcliff knocked Horodecki to the
canvas in the first round (more of a balance shot), and another
momentarily buckled the Canadian in the second round. But it became
clear that while Ratcliff behaved like a man who was outclassing his
opponent – at times even looking into the audience, as if
disinterested and bored by the threat in front of him – Ratcliff
seemed to lack the will to truly up the ante and try to hurt or
finish Horodecki.
Tyler Toner vs. Diego Nunes
Best known for his kickboxing arsenal, Diego Nunes reminded everyone
that he is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and a decent wrestler
with a smothering three-round victory over hometown favorite Tyler
Toner. Nunes was sly from the get-go. With Toner perhaps expecting a
stand-up war – since that has been Nunes’ preference in his WEC
career thus far – the Brazilian leaped in and secured a double-leg
takedown, then transitioned to a deep guillotine choke. Toner’s
prospects for survival didn’t look good, yet, even as Nunes insisted
on the choke and spent a lot of energy squeezing, the University of
Colorado graduate refused to tap. Toner found himself on the wrong
side of a guillotine choke again in the second yet again showed
resilience and survived.
Toner would have preferred a standup battle and occasionally landed
some decent shots, but in limited action on their feet Nunes was
also effective with spinning backfists and backkicks.
Judges scored the fight 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27 for Nunes.
Antonio Banuelos vs. Chad George
Banuelos, a high-octane fighter, was uncharacteristically timid for
stretches of this fight, favoring single punches instead of combos.
George was equally methodical, making for a surprisingly slow-paced
bout that featured far more circling and dancing about the cage than
most fans care to see. Nevertheless, Banuelos earned a unanimous
decision victory on the strength of takedowns and ground and pound,
though he was quite fortunate to survive a deep D’arce choke late in
the first round. Just as it appeared that Banuelos was on the verge
of raising his hand to tap out, he was saved by the horn signaling
the end of the five minute round, otherwise George’s hand likely
would have been raised. Banuelos conceded as much in his post-fight
interview, saying “with a D’Arce you don’t tap you just wait till
you go to sleep … It was probably one of those (submissions) that,
if he had more time, I probably would have went to sleep.”
Banuelos also offered an explanation for his atypical performance,
saying he had been slowed by a recent foot injury.
Demetrious Johnson vs. Nick Pace
A relatively close contest evolved into a one-sided affair as
Johnson aggressively hunted Pace, punishing the unbeaten New Yorker
with strikes and repeatedly taking him down hard to the canvas. The
first round seemed up for grabs until the final stretch, when the
undersized Johnson earned the round with a takedown and a few kicks
to the face.
The Matt Hume protégé swarmed Pace at the start of the second round
with knees and hard-digging body shots and never looked back. At
times it seemed as though Pace was hesitant to punch back, perhaps
doubting himself and just trying to survive in his WEC debut.
Johnson punctuated the assault in the third round with a Matt Hughes
style, walk-you-across-the-cage-and-slam-you-hard style slam. Pace
seemed to emerge from his shell in the last 30 seconds, taking
Johnson’s back and fishing for a rear naked choke, but it was not to
be as time expired.
The judges awarded Pace a unanimous decision by scores of 30-27
across the board, pushing his record to 11-1.
“I’m a small 135er,” Johnson said, “but I can hang with these big
boys.”
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