UFC on Fox 15 featured a wealth of talent, young and old, on the preliminary card. From rising stars to battle-tested veterans to fan favorites, there was a lot to be excited for, and thankfully, the fights lived up to the expectations.
The full preliminary card results are as follows:
Prelims on Fox
- Beneil Dariush def. Jim Miller, unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- Ovince Saint Preux def. Patrick Cummins, knockout (Round 1, 4:54)
- Gian Villante def. Corey Anderson, TKO (Round 3, 4:18)
- Aljamain Sterling def. Takeya Mizugaki, submission (Round 3, 2:11)
Fight Pass Prelims
- Tim Means def. George Sullivan, submission (Round 3, 3:41)
- Diego Brandao def. Jimy Hettes, TKO (Round 1, 5:00)
- Chris Dempsey def. Eddie Gordon, split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Which three fighters made the strongest impressions in the early phases of UFC on Fox 15? Who had the most emphatic victories?
Read on and find out.
Tim Means
The unlikely resurgence of Tim Means continued at UFC on Fox 15 as he dominated George Sullivan. The long welterweight found his range early and picked Sullivan apart before finishing him on the ground with strikes in the third.
That extends Means’ winning streak to three, and the performance was dominant enough to warrant taking another look at him when discussing the top tier of the welterweight division. While Sullivan isn’t a killer by any stretch, Means had a champion-like confidence in the cage that, at least for this writer, inspires faith that he can hang with nearly anyone in the deep welterweight pool.
Aljamain Sterling
Takeya Mizugaki is one of the toughest outs in the UFC’s bantamweight division. While seeing him lose isn’t an especially rare occurrence, it takes a darn good fighter to beat him and an exceptional one to actually do it without help from the judges. Aljamain Sterling did just that.
Kicking off the Fox broadcast, Sterling put in two strong rounds against the Japanese striker, blanketing him against the cage and on the mat. In the third round, Sterling went for the finish and wound up scoring a rare head-and-arm choke from the bottom.
In 16 fights under the Zuffa umbrella, Mizugaki has only been finished twice, by Urijah Faber and Dominick Cruz. That puts Sterling in some strong company and likely launches him deep into the bantamweight Top 10.
Ovince Saint Preux
Ovince Saint Preux desperately needed a win over Patrick Cummins. While Saint Preux was a star in Strikeforce and earned some attention in the UFC by starching former champ Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, consistently weak competition made it easy to doubt his staying power in the Top 10. It wasn’t hard to imagine a decorated wrestler like Cummins taking him down en route to a decision win.
Well, any doubters he had were likely proved wrong here. OSP largely negated Cummins’ wrestling attack and successfully scrambled his way out of danger any time things went to the mat. Eventually, Cummins charged in with an overhand right, only to be left in a heap by a sneaky fadeaway uppercut.
It was a strong all-around performance by Saint Preux—the kind that proves that he deserves to held up among the best in the world at 205 pounds.
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