Filed under: UFC
In a highly entertaining bantamweight bout, Mike Easton took a hard-fought majority decision over Jared Papazian at Friday night’s UFC on FX event.
“He’s a tough dude,” Easton said of Papazian after the fight. “I knew he was going to be tough. He was the champ back in the division he was at. I knew he was going to come and show up and all we wanted to do was give a show to the fans. And we wrecked. We fought tonight.”
The fight got off to a great start as both men clinched with one hand and punched with the other, a la Don Frye vs. Yoshihiro Takayama, in the first 30 seconds. The entire first round was fought standing up, with both men landing hard strikes and putting on a good show. I had Easton winning a close first round.
The second round was more of the same until the final minute, when Easton got the first takedown of the fight and did a little damage on the ground, and although Papazian got back to his feet for a moment, they went right back down and Easton finished the round on top. Easton was likely up two rounds to none at the end of the second.
In the third Easton and Papazian traded some of their hardest punches yet, and Papazian showed a lot of heart and continued throwing to the final bell, but Easton had won. The judges scored it 30-27, 29-28 and a bizarre score of 29-29, with Easton winning by majority decision.
The win improves Easton’s record to 12-1. Papazian falls to 14-7.