UFC 211 emanated tonight (Saturday, May 13, 2017) from the American Airlines Center in Dallas, TX. A pair of title fights topped the bill, as heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic looked to defend his belt and avenge a 2014 loss to challenger Junior dos Santos in the process. Meanwhile, Joanna J?drzejczyk put her strawweight strap on the line against Brazilian smashing machine Jessica Andrade.
Miocic took home one of the $50,000 Performance of the Night bonuses with his first-round knockout of challenger and former champion Junior dos Santos. Miocic controlled the action from the outset, backing “Cigano” to the fence and unloading with power punches on his cornered opponent. After a final volley floored dos Santos, Miocic pounced and didn’t let up until referee Herb Dean jumped in to save the Brazilian.
The other Performance of the Night bonus went to “Mississippi Mean”, aka “Hick Diaz”, aka Jason “The Kid” Knight. He had a back and forth battle with Chas “The Scrapper” Skelly through two rounds. The featherweights traded power punches while Skelly scored with takedowns. But Knight fended off any effective Skelly offense on the ground with his active and aggressive guard game. Early in the third round, a step-in uppercut from Knight dropped Skelly and the Alan Belcher protege polished off his Texan opponent for the third-round stoppage. For his efforts, Knight walked away with $50,000 extra.
Down on the prelims, Fight of the Night went to heavyweight brawlers Chase Sherman and Rashad Coulter. The two big men duked it out for the better part of ten minutes. Sherman’s leg kicks left Coulter badly hobbled, but the UFC newcomer hung tough, throwing – and often landing – giant bombs on Sherman’s chin. “The Vanilla Gorilla” ate everything Coulter had and kept on throwing. By the second round, elbows, kicks, and punches had Coulter badly compromised, but his intermittent haymakers landed often enough to stave off the referee and allowed the bout to continue. Finally, a Sherman elbow folded Coulter up against the fence and prompted the referee stoppage. The wild slugfest resulted in both men earning $50,000 bonus checks.
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