Author: By Frank Curreri

Unlike many top fighters, Chris Weidman isn’t obsessive or super-strict about what he eats. The 28-year-old New Yorker, whom many regard as the greatest threat to middleweight king Anderson Silva’s throne, hasn’t been forced to reform any aspect of his diet or training thanks in large part to racking up a perfect 9-0 pro record. Opponents have yet to pinpoint Weidman’s weakness inside the cage, but the Hofstra University grad recently spoke with UFC.com and revealed plenty of weakness at the dinner table.

Dude With A Sweet Tooth:

I remember in high school I would eat three things: Toasted strudels, French toast sticks and chocolate chip waffles. Amazing! Besides that I ate peanut butter and honey all day long. I literally grew up on peanut butter and honey. My mom always made us dinner and home-cooked meals. A lot of time I got yelled at because I would eat peanut butter and honey instead. I just love peanut butter.

Ethnic Grubbing:

I’m German-Irish, so my mom would cook German and Irish food to keep my dad happy. As far as Irish dishes, she would make corned beef, Irish soda bread, mashed potatoes and things like that.

Got a Jones for This These Days:

I still eat peanut butter and honey, peanut butter and bananas, all day long. That’s my thing. Very rarely do I get to eat the Toasted strudels or French toast anymore. I can’t handle it. I’ll be dead for the day. Most mornings, I eat four eggs over easy with Rye toast, with tomatoes and onions on the side. Usually I’ll go to a local deli and they hook me up.

But I love the peanut butter, man. I love peanut butter, honey and bananas. Any time I’m at home – if I’m making food myself – that’s what I’m making.

Supplements?

Not really, man, I need to do better with that. I do protein, fish oil, glucosamine, a multi-vitamin.

Daily calories:

Weidman: I usually eat five meals a day. If I get home late at night and I’m still hungry and I’m trying to be good with my diet then I’ll eat a scoop of organic peanut butter. Because there’s something in peanut butter, in the fat, that makes you feel full.

Cutting to 185:

It’s only tough when I have short notice. When I have full notice it’s not too bad at all. I eat all the way up until weigh ins pretty much. Maybe the day of the weigh in, leading up to the weigh in, I will only eat a little something. I wrestled at 197 at Hofstra.

Could you make 170 pounds if you tried?

No way, that’d be ridiculous.

Trying to pack on weight?

I try to lift every once in a while. I’ve always tried to get a (bigger) chest; it just never happened though! I have a genetic failure with my chest, I guess. Fortunately, in fighting, you don’t need a big chest. It’s more of a beach muscle thing, right?

I have a strength coach and I do those workouts two or three times a week. I also do cardio stuff, not stereotypical weightlifting.

Nutritionist?

My strength coach is actually a nutritionist, too, so he helps me with that. But for the most part I just eat healthy. I stick with the same thing. I do everything smart; I’m not slacking off, I’m work hard. So as long as I know I’m working hard in the gym the other stuff is just small.

Eat Like a New Yorker:

Bagels and pizzas are my kryptonite, man. I love having sausage, egg and cheese, salt, pepper and ketchup on a croissant in the morning. Or bagels with cream cheese, I love lox with cream cheese on an everything egg bagel. I love all that stuff.

I actually like water and I drink it a lot. I’m not a big soda guy but I’ll have a Diet Coke every once in a while for the caffeine.

Rating His Diet on a 1 to 10 scale:

I’ll give it an 8 and ½ (straight-faced). I’m working out at the same time and I feel good, so I think it’s an awesome diet. I feel good, and if you feel good, what else are you going to do?

Over the past month, no MMA fighter has seen their star skyrocket as much as “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey. The 25-year-old Californian wowed with her curves in ESPN The Magazine’s “The Body Issue,” candidly bantered with Conan O’Brien on his late night show, and has been the subject of an All-Access series on Showtime leading up to Saturday night’s clash with Sarah Kaufman (10 p.m. ET/PT on Showtime). The reigning Strikeforce Bantamweight champ and 2008 Olympic bronze medalist (judo) sat down with me recently to talk about her fascinating one-meal-a-day diet, coffee addiction, and how mixed martial arts helped heal past insecurities about her body.

Staples of the Rowdy One’s diet …

Rousey: It’s kind of a combination of The Paleo and The Warrior diet. I pretty much eat one meal a day – which takes place at night. I usually eat between 4 and 10 (p.m.). As far as supplements go, I don’t take anything that is made in a lab. If it was on earth 10,000 years ago then I will eat it.

There is one exception to all of this each day: I get to have coffee every morning. That’s the only thing I really fudge on. A lot of athletes try to put a bunch of chemicals in their bodies, as much as they can get away with. I try to make everything as clean as possible, you know I even use a water alkanalizing machine and I try to only drink out of glass bottles when I can (to avoid petrochemicals). I try to only drink high quality water as well.

One Meal A Day? This is Crazy!

I thought it was crazy at first. Especially since breakfast was, and still is, my favorite meal. I like having a big breakfast, a medium (sized) lunch, a tiny dinner and I would usually go to bed hungry. It took a while to get used to but I don’t really get hungry during the day anymore. I sleep a lot better than I used to and I have a lot more time because I’m not planning meals all day long.

Hunger pains?

There weren’t really hunger pains when I switched to the diet. You’re just used to eating, you’re sitting around and you’re bored … sometimes you just want to eat to keep yourself occupied. But as long as I’m busy – and I’m busy a lot these days so I’m run ragged all day long – I just pretty much need coffee and I’m cool.

He (her nutritionist) wanted to take coffee out of my diet at first; we had to have a little bit of a discussion. I was like, ‘I don’t care what I have to do, but I NEED COFFEE! So that’s why we grind up a bunch of wheatgrass, parsley, cilantro and sprouts every morning – a green shot – and I take that every morning to try and combat my addiction to coffee.

Philosophy underlying her diet:

A guy named Chad Waterbury handles my nutrition. I got it all from him. The philosophy is, when you’re digesting food then your body wants to rest. If you’re hungry then your body wants to go and get food. So you have more energy when you’re not digesting food. So I can get more out of training on an empty stomach than I would on a full stomach.

On Insecurities About Her Body:

I had terrible issues with my body when I was younger because I always had to make a certain weight on deadline all the time. So people were constantly asking me how much I weighed and criticizing what I ate – so I felt if I wasn’t exactly on weight then I was ugly. People were like, ‘Oh, you’re heavy, you’re fat, you need to lose weight.’ I would get yelled at for being heavy so I equated the number on the scale with how I felt about myself. It was a hard thing to deal with if you’re a 15- or 16-year-old girl. I had a big problem with that for many years — I didn’t like how I looked or how much I weighed.

But once I started doing MMA and got away from that old coaching, starting to do more of it on my own, I started having a healthier self-image. Being in the ESPN “The Body Issue” is something tangible that I can hold in my hands and be like, ‘OK, I’ve overcome this and I have nothing to be ashamed of because the body that I have now is being celebrated.’

Carbohydrate sources:

I usually eat carbs on alternating days. So it will usually be rice or potatoes or something like that.

Calories per day:

Pretty much I just eat until I’m full. Since I don’t eat all day my stomach has shrunk so I get full fast. So I don’t count calories at all.

On Red Meat and Chicken:

If I have red meat it must be ‘Grass-Finished beef’ not ‘Grass Fed.’ Grass Fed could be that they fed the cow grass ONE DAY and then fed it corn for the rest of its life – and that qualifies it to be ‘Grass Fed’. Grass-Finished means it has to eat grass for at least 80 percent of its lifetime … so it has to be very high quality. I also try to eat everything organic, even when I eat dairy.

Competed in Olympics (154-pound category). Fought MMA at 145 and now 135 pounds.

When I did judo I was tiny for the division. When I started MMA I walked around at 145 pounds so I fought there but I thought I could capitalize more fighting at 135 pounds and get more attention because it’s a deeper division. But I hadn’t been that light since I was like 15 years old so I went and got help for that. It’s been one of the easiest weight cuts I’ve ever done.

On being punched in her ‘MoneyMaker’:

I have a deviated septum, I have cauliflower ears, and my toes are all broken to hell. That’s just the way I look and I’m happy with how I look. So if people think an extra scar on my face would make me not movie-worthy … so I would just be a director or something like that. I can’t walk into a fight thinking, ‘Oh I need to save my moneymaker.’ I don’t care if I cut my face all to hell; I’m in there to win. You can’t walk in there scared of what might happen to you. I walk in there focused on what I have to do. If I wind up with a cut on my face, so what, whatever.

DENVER, August 11 – Winning your UFC debut – awesome. Etching your name in the history books – even better. It was that type of night for 22-year-old Erik Perez, the Mexico native who sent Ken Stone to the canvas face-first with a monster right hand and sealed the deal a few punches later in UFC 150 prelim action at Pepsi Center Saturday. The TKO took all of 17 seconds, the fastest knockout ever recorded at bantamweight in UFC or WEC history.

Perez, who was born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico and now trains with Greg Jackson in Albuquerque, New Mexico, improved to 12-4.The loss snapped a two-fight UFC win streak for Stone (11-4), who trains with American Top Team.

JARED HAMMAN VS. MICHAEL KUIPER

Whenever Jared Hamman is on the card, Fight of the Night talk is sure to surround his bout. Somewhat predictably, his seven-minute middleweight war with Michael Kuiper brought fans at the Pepsi Center to their feet and became the instant frontrunner for Fight of the Night, even if he wound up on the losing end of a second round TKO.

Hamman (13-5) lives and trains in Denver and gave fans plenty to cheer about early, repeatedly landing punching combinations and kicks on the Dutch kickboxing ace. But Kuiper (12-1) showed zero respect for Hamman’s power, stubbornly marching straight through the shots and hurting Hamman early with a leg kick that may have turned the tide in the fight, because Kuiper began to pick up steam midway in round one, increasingly finding Hamman’s chin and dropping him with a wicked left hook. Kuiper also scored a takedown, landed some very hard knees and a flying knee. Hamman was wobbled and rubbery-legged for quite some time, yet somehow managed to stay on his feet and keep firing punches on instinct.

Hamman started well in round two, again landing combinations. But Kuiper simply kept stalking with kicks and a hard right hand that buckled Hamman and forced him to retreat. The fistic assault only mounted from there as Kuiper dropped Hamman, and rocked him again when he got to his feet. You were left to wonder, “How much longer can Hamman go on?”
A Kuiper uppercut answered the question, sending Hamman slumping against the cage and grabbing his right leg. That was it: the referee called the fight at 2:16 of round two. Hamman departed the cage limping badly.

DENNIS BERMUDEZ VS. TOM HAYDEN

Dennis Bermudez doesn’t remember the Tom Hayden knee that put him on the deck in round one.

All the New Yorker remembers is, “This guy is on my back with a rear naked choke. How did he get here?”

It was yet another slow start for the TUF 14 featherweight finalist, who nevertheless survived the onslaught and stormed back with a standing guillotine choke that caused Hayden (8-2) to tapout at 4:43 of round one.

Bermudez said the gutsy showing embodied what friends have long told him: “Seems like all your fights, you go out, you get dropped and then you come back and you win.”

In fact, Bermudez weathered not one, but two, close calls. Hayden also trapped him in a deep armbar during the contest, but Bermudez attempted a violent slam that convinced Hayden to release the limb.

Watch post-fight interviews with Kuiper and Bermudez

DUSTIN PAGUE VS. CHICO CAMUS

It’s not often that you see the smaller fighter park himself atop an opponent and become an immovable object. But Chico Camus, one of the smaller bantamweights to grace the Octagon of late, rode his top control and ground to pound to victory over TUF 14 alum Dustin Pague in a bout that was arguably up for grabs until the final minute or so.

Pague simply could not find a way back to his feet once Camus (12-3) got on top, and ultimately the accumulation of top control and ground-and-pound persuaded the judges to give the Milwaukee product a unanimous decision by scores of 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27.

Both fighters had their chances to finish the fight. Pague (11-8) threatened with a triangle choke in round two that Camus fought off nicely while eating a smorgasbord of elbows, however. Pague took command early in round three with a swift takedown and back control. Trapped in a body lock, Camus somehow wiggled free and once again remained on top for the bulk of the round – even coming close to finishing the fight with a rear naked choke before the final horn.

NIK LENTZ VS. EIJI MITSUOKA

Mark it down: Nik Lentz will someday be UFC champion at 145 pounds.

That was the Minnesotan’s bold declaration immediately following his featherweight debut, which saw him run roughshod over 11-year veteran Eiji Matsuoka.

Indeed, Lentz did whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, throughout the entire three minute, 45 second annihilation, imposing his will on Matsuoka (18-9-2) with precision boxing combination and hard knees out of the gate. He then added four takedowns (including two hard slams). The inevitable end came after Lentz took the Japanese fighter’s back with both hooks, flattened him, and fired away with punches until the referee had seen enough.

The victory snapped a two-fight losing streak for Lentz (24-5-2) at lightweight, convincing him to hire weight cut mastermind Mike Dolce and drop a weight division. He also began training at American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Fla.

“I’m extremely happy. I changed everything for this fight,” Lentz said. “I literally got rid of all of my coaches and got new ones. I went to Florida and stayed in the worst hotel for eight weeks. I literally threw my whole life away because I know that at featherweight I can be champion. I’m 146 pounds but I’m literally twice as strong.”

Hear from Lentz following his big win
 

 

DENVER, August 11 – While the UFC 150 main event between Benson Henderson and Frankie Edgar raised more questions than it answered, there was closure in Saturday’s co-main event between Donald Cerrone and Melvin Guillard at Pepsi Center.

The most deafening, hair-raising ovation of the night was when Cerrone stood in the center of the Octagon and yelled, “What’s up Denver?”

As it so happens, it was a victory speech to the packed house at Pepsi Center, which had just witnessed 76 seconds of fireworks between close friends. 76 seconds that started with Guillard – probably the most explosive puncher in the entire 155-pound division, a fighter who boasted he could knock out heavyweight fighters and is probably right – dropped former teammate Cerrone with a sizzling left hook. A notoriously slow starter, Cerrone ate a few more punches and an elbow but managed to clear the cobwebs, just as he had valiantly recovered in earlier fights.

One of the most durable fighters in the game, Cerrone turned the tables with a beautiful left high kick to Guillard’s head that rocked the native Louisianan’s equilibrium. As Guillard (47-12-3, 1 NC) stumbled to stay afoot, Cerrone capitalized with a crisp right hand that put Guillard on the deck, curling up and making it clear that the fight was over.

Cerrone has now won 9 of his past 10 fights.

JAKE SHIELDS VS. ED HERMAN

There is seldom any mystery in Jake Shields’ blueprint for victory: Take ‘em down, grind ‘em out or submit ‘em. In this sense, Shields, a takedown machine and world-class grappler, is one of the most prolific fighters in the sport. Sure, his suffocating style is not always fun to watch, but there is no denying how difficult Shields can be to stop.

Ask Ed Herman, who showed impressive submission defense in their contest but could not stop Shields’ vintage takedowns and dominating top control. Each round played out like a re-run of the previous one. Herman (20-8) was able to land some shots standing, but his own wrestling background and fondness for the clinch meant he spent a lot of time clinching with Shields – not something a lot of fighters would dare to do.

Judges scored it 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 for Shields, who improved to 28-6-1 and won in his return to the 185-pound category. When Bruce Buffer announced the judges’ verdict, fans at Pepsi Center heavily booed Shields – either because he beat their “guy” (Herman lives and trains in Fort Collins, Colo.) or because the fight was devoid of suspense and intrigue.
Shields said afterward that the high “altitude definitely slowed me down a little bit … I underestimated it.”

Hear from Shields following his victory

YUSHIN OKAMI VS. BUDDY ROBERTS

Former No. 1 middleweight contender Yushin Okami snapped a two-fight losing streak, pounding newcomer Buddy Roberts with punches on the ground until referee Herb Dean halted the action at 3:05 of round two.

While the standup action between the two men was topsy-turvy, Okami stole the momentum after scoring a takedown midway in round one – mounting the Texan, flattening him on his stomach and scoring with some heavy, unanswered ground and pound shots that had referee Herb Dean watching closely to see if a stoppage was merited. The horn signaling the round’s end likely saved Roberts, who probably wasn’t getting up. The bad news for Roberts (12-3) is that Okami (28-7) again took him down and flattened him in round two, with time aplenty on the clock. This time Herb Dean had seen enough unanswered punches and called the fight at 3:05 of the stanza.

MAX HOLLOWAY VS. JUSTIN LAWRENCE

Their combined age – 42 years old –has to be among the youngest ever for two fighters squaring off inside the Octagon. And it was 20-year-old Max Holloway, the youngest fighter currently on the UFC roster, who dramatically turned the tide of the contest by ravaging the unbeaten prospect with vicious body shots late in round two for a stunning TKO stoppage.

It was the first-ever professional defeat for Lawrence (4-1), the TUF 15 alum who appeared to be significantly outlanding Holloway in their standup battle. A heavily decorated amateur kickboxer and two-time St. Louis Golden Gloves winner, Lawrence continually landed hard 1-2 combinations. Yet Holloway never seemed fazed by the shots and kept charging forward, gradually landing more and more shots of his own and bloodying Lawrence’s face. If you were judging only by body language and aggression, by whose demeanor and actions seemed to scream out “I want it more,” it was definitely Holloway who fought like the man who was in control of the contest – despite being outstruck.

Lawrence tried his patented double legs but was rebuffed. He landed crisp 1-2s on Holloway’s head but was not prepared for a hard knee to the body late in the second stanza. As Holloway (6-1) backed up on the cage, Holloway unleashed a blistering 1-2 to the body that sucked the life out of Lawrence and sent him to the canvas, eventually forcing him to cover up under a hail of punches until the ref called it at 4:49 of round two.

Watch post-fight interviews with Okami and Holloway

DENVER, August 11 – The championship rematch between Benson Henderson and Frankie Edgar was supposed to quash any controversy ignited by their topsy-turvy battle earlier this year. Instead, Henderson’s split decision win in the UFC 150 main event at the Pepsi Center on Saturday only inspired even more questions about whether the right fighter had his hand raised.

Henderson, who snatched the title at UFC 144 in February via unanimous decision, has ties to Colorado and treated the hometown crowd to a methodical but convincing first round that saw him relentlessly whack away with low kicks that caused Edgar’s calf to turn colors. Edgar later caught a kick and retorted with a crisp right hand. The 30-year-old New Jersey native also scored a takedown, but found himself trapped in a Henderson guillotine until the horn expired.

But Edgar, the undersized former title-holder, stepped up big in the second, flooring Henderson with a lightning-quick right hand, and threatening with a guillotine choke and front headlocks during the most memorable stretches of the round. Among cageside reporters, it was clearly an Edgar round.

Round three seemed to be the most pivotal and hardest to score. It was an underwhelming round as far as action goes, and the definitive blow was a hard Henderson kick to Edgar’s body that produced a loud THWACK!! and prompted many in the crowd to collectively go “Ohhhhh!”

Rounds four and five saw Edgar (14-3-1) heating up with right hands and low kicks. His speed seemed to give Henderson trouble, but late in the fourth Henderson – who inexplicably veered from the low kicks that had worked so magnificently early in the fight – started attacking and scoring more with his punches. At one point the champ taunted Edgar and stuck his face out; Edgar responded with a precisely placed right hand as the final seconds of round four struck.

Some wondered why Henderson, much bigger than Edgar, did not choose to assert his size and muscle advantage and attempt to bully Edgar more with clinchwork and wrestling. Most of the fight was a standup affair, as Edgar rebuffed the few takedowns that Henderson attempted.

Two judges scored it 48-47 for Henderson; a third judge gave Edgar the nod 49-46.

“I was a little bit confused by the scores,” Henderson (17-2) said afterward. “49-46? I didn’t think it was that close, but it is what it is … Frankie’s tough. We all know how tough Frankie is. Hats off to him and his coaches.”

Edgar initially seemed to be in disbelief at the judges’ scores. He believes he won the fight – just as he believes he prevailed in their first meeting – but tried to be gracious toward the champ.

“It don’t matter. I brought it to him but congrats to him. I’m not going to watch that fight; it don’t matter. What can you do?”

LOS ANGELES, August 4 – In the lead preliminary bout on Saturday’s UFC on FOX card at STAPLES Center, Nam Phan escaped with a split decision victory after a back-and-forth standup war with American Top Team’s Cole Miller.

Miller came out the aggressor in round one, using his superior reach and controlling the distance to score with kicks, jabs and lead left hooks. But Phan turned the tables in the second half of the round, popping Miller with hard combos.

Miller (18-8) seemed to outhustle Nam in the second stanza, landing shots but not necessarily packing much sizzle on them. In round three, Phan (18-11) again found his rhythm, repeatedly tagging Miller with hard combos and body shots. Miller’s work rate, meanwhile, dropped off significantly and he paid the price as judges gave the nod to Phan by scores of 29-28, 29-28 and 28-29.

PHIL DAVIS VS. WAGNER PRADO

On a night when light heavyweights were essentially auditioning for a shot at the UFC light heavyweight title, Phil Davis and Wagner Prado were deprived of a chance to impress after an inadvertent eye poke caused the referee to halt their fight and declare a no contest at the 1:28 mark of the opening round.

Prado, clearly bothered by Davis’s accidental foul, vehemently protested the stoppage and appeared to be on the verge of tears. Rather extraordinarily, the crowd also pleaded for a more definite resolution by erupting into chants of “Let him fight! Let him fight! Let him fight!”

It was hard to get a gauge on who might have won the scrap since the only significant blow was a solid right hand by Prado (8-0, 1 NC) that landed on Davis (9-1, 1 NC), who seemed unfazed.

There was much initial confusion amongst the media and fans as to why the referee opted to call the fight. Though the eye poke clearly affected the Brazilian, he expressed a willingness to fight on and the poke did not seem particularly egregious. One report circulating was that the ref asked Prado if he could see and was OK to fight. Prado reportedly said he was seeing double, but then, moments later, pronounced himself able to see just fine and was fine to continue on.

RANI YAHYA VS. JOSH GRISPI

We don’t see a lot of north-south chokes in MMA, but we were treated to a beautiful execution of the submission Saturday when Rani Yahya forced Josh Grispi to tap at 3:15 of round one.

Though Yahya is better suited to 135 pounds, and looked significantly smaller than the mighty Bostonian in their 145-pound contest, the Brazilian grappling wiz ate a few punches early before catching a Grispi (14-4) kick and scoring the takedown that completely changed the complexion of the undercard bout. Being underneath a 2007 Abu Dhabi world champion is not where anyone wants to be, and once Yahya passed Grispi’s guard it became apparent the former top contender was in deep trouble.

Yahya (17-7) has now notched 15 of his wins via submission, cementing his status as one of the game’s most feared grapplers.

The loss continues a disappointing slide for Grispi, who only a few years ago was touted as arguably the greatest threat to Jose Aldo’s featherweight throne. Grispi, a distant relative of former boxing icon Rocky Marciano who packs as much one-punch knockout power as anyone at 145, had been absent from the cage for more than a year as he supported his father’s ongoing fight against cancer.

Hear from Yahya following his big win

PHIL DE FRIES VS. OLI THOMPSON

After enduring a nauseating clinchfest in round one, fans and cageside reporters had ample reason to fear more of the same in round two. But Phil De Fries graciously spared them of further suffering, awakening the live crowd with a thorough beating of his fellow Brit in round two, sealing the deal with what was officially dubbed a “face crank” submission (it actually appeared to be a fairly standard rear naked choke) at 4:16 of the second frame.

De Fries (9-1, 1 NC), one of a growing number of Europeans now training under the vaunted Alliance MMA umbrella in nearby San Diego, got his party started with a lunging right hand that dropped Britain’s Strongest Man (Thompson won the 2006 competition of the same name).

While Thompson may excel at, say, dragging jet planes – his cardio appeared to betray him early in the first, coinciding with the blistering fistic assault De Fries unleashed upon him. Thompson (9-4) showed he is plenty tough, but as there is a reason the Gracie family loves chokes – even the toughest guys stop fighting when deprived of oxygen.

Hear what De Fries had to say after his victory

MICHIHIRO OMIGAWA VS. MANNY GAMBURYAN

If Ronda Rousey comes down with a bad case of Laryngitis Sunday morning, we’ll know why. Seated at cageside, the First Lady of MMA (and her mother) feverishly barked encouragement to teammate Manny Gamburyan and jumped for joy three rounds later as the Armenian featherweight escaped with a unanimous decision victory over Japanese veteran Michihiro Omigawa.

It was an impressive victory for Gamburyan, a Los Angeles area native, who survived being knocked down by a hard left early in round one and appeared winded down the stretch after stunning Omigawa with a left high kick and then burning a lot of energy trying in vain to finish Omigawa. You could say that Omigawa is merely the Japanese version of Gamburyan; both are stocky, built like fire hydrants and swing for the fences.

If you prefer damage inflicted to punches landed, you could have definitely have given round one to Omigawa – one judge did, in fact– but Gamburyan was much busier with a well-rounded striking arsenal and his suffocating takedowns also helped him claim rounds two and three.

Gamburyan outstruck Omigawa almost two to one. Judges rewarded him by scores of 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27.

ULYSSES GOMEZ VS. JOHN MORAGA

In a battle of debuting UFC flyweights, former Arizona State University wrestler John Moraga knocked Ulysses Gomez out with a blistering five-strike sequence at 3:46 of round one.

“I’m proud, man,” Moraga (11-1) told UFC commentator Joe Rogan post-fight. “I just wanted to make the UFC happy and hopefully set the tone for the rest of the night.”

The tussle between high-level grapplers (Gomez is a decorated brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu) never hit the mat as the hard-hitting Moraga started heating up midway of the opening round and stuffed two takedowns when Gomez tried to stifle his momentum. Moraga opened a small cut on Gomez’s forehead and attacked the body with hard punches and a kick to the ribs.

The end came when Moraga disengaged from the clinch, landed a potent left elbow and followed it up with several other clean shots, sending Gomez (9-3) slumping to the canvas and out cold.

Watch Moraga’s post-fight interview