For about five minutes there, it looked like Sam Stout was back to doing the thing that’s kept him gainfully employed in the UFC’s lightweight division since 2006: Using his speedy movement to dart in and out, stick and move, and hopefully point his way to a decision at the end.
Then Ross Pearson decided enough was enough Saturday night in Dallas. The fighter known as “The Real Deal” interrupted one of Stout’s exchanges with a huge left hook to the jaw. A right hand to the downed Stout later and Pearson was victorious in their UFC 185 lightweight bout.
“I love the big hook,” said Pearson (17-8, 1 NC), who won at 1:32 of round two. “The timing and the rhythm was down and it was just a matter of getting it there.”
With the victory, Pearson, a Sunderland, England native who trains at San Diego’s Alliance MMA, has won two out of his past four, with one loss widely considered a robbery against Diego Sanchez.
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“Sam moves forward and he’s a warrior,” Pearson said. “In the first round, I was trying too hard looking for it. In the second I got it.”
Stout (20-11-1), a seven-time post-fight bonus winner from London, Ontario, has dropped three of his past four bouts.