The Facebook preliminaries keep cruising along with a steady diet of fan favorites (or villains depending on your perspective) and intriguing prospects.
An example of the former would be Alex Caceres, who is well known to The Ultimate Fighter audience as Bruce Leeroy.
The youngster is either hero or heel depending on personal taste, but he might be on his way out regardless of allegiances after absorbing his second straight defeat. This time, UFC newcomer Jimy Hettes put on a spectacular Brazilian jiu-jitsu display, fluidly transitioning from submission to submission while attacking any vulnerable limb opened up by Bruce Leeroy.
Eventually, the Kid snapped on a rear-naked choke before he had Caceres’ back and forced the tap at the 3:12 mark of the second round for a very impressive win in his UFC debut.
In the fifth fight of the evening, another gladiator making his UFC debut stole the show as Ronny Markes destroyed Czech wrestling champion, Karlos Vemola. The Terminator came into the match as the more heralded entrant, but it was the young Brazilian who controlled the proceedings with thunderous takedowns and excellent ground ‘n’ pound. Even in the standup, Ronny did most of the damage, landing several series of knees to Vemola’s midsection.
Although Markes wasn’t able to secure the stoppage, he took all three rounds on each judge’s scorecard for an easy unanimous decision.
Markes and Vemola gave way for yet another grappling exhibition, this time coming from Ed Herman at Matt Noke’s expense. Short Fuse Herman was able to turn back KO’s first takedown attempt, ending up on top of his opponent. From there, Noke was able to reverse and put Herman on his back, but that turned out to be the beginning of the end.
Herman turned on a relentless submission assault, finding openings for chokes, armbars and eventually the fatal inverted heel hook. The American wrenched the Australian’s foot almost all the way around, making for a gruesome stoppage at 2:13 of the first round.