In the third fight of the night, Welterweights TJ Waldburger and Mike Stumpf squared off in a heated ground battle.
Walderburger, a Texas native fighting out of Grappler’s Lair gym, entered the cage coming off a loss against Johny Hendricks earlier this year.
Stumpf, who boasted an 11-2 record on coming into tonight looked to make an impact in his UFC debut.
ROUND 1:
Waldburger starts the round aggressively with a great low kick which threw Stumpf off balance and sent him to the mat. Like a dog on a bone, Waldburger immediately took Stumpf’s back, and began to go to work.
For the next 45 seconds Waldburger maintained his attack trying to secure a better position as Stumpf was turtled up protecting himself from strikes. As the fighters moved closer to the cage, Stumpf was able to turn the tables and mount his attack from the top on Waldburger.
However, Waldburger a BJJ Purple Belt, showed a truly technical display of skill, first by regaining top position and stepping over Stumpf in an arm bar attempt. As Stumpf attempted to fight it off, Waldburger resembled a cyclone as he spun on the mat trying to maintain the arm bar from first a face down position and then turn over onto his back again.
As Stumpf, began to sit up out of the arm bar, Waldburger had the frame of mind to pull of a smooth transition to a deep triangle arm bar that Stumpf immediately tapped to.
Will Anderson is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA. For anything related to MMA, you can follow Will on Twitter @CageCrusader