(Matt Brown about to do the Captain Morgan pose on Erick Silva. / Photo via Getty)
Matt. F*cking. Brown.
No, really. Matt Brown. If you didn’t see his main-event fight against Erick Silva at UFC Fight Night 40, you have to. You owe it to yourself. Our words can’t really do it justice suffice it to say it was pure violence. The first round saw Silva nearly score a liver-shot KO over Brown and then submit him with a rear naked choke. But after Brown escaped the choke, he managed to reverse his fortunes. He landed some combinations that would put down a horse, but somehow Silva survived the beating throughout the latter half of the first round and the entirety of the second. Finally, in the third frame, Silva succumbed to the force of nature that was Brown. This fight was a breath of fresh, bloody air when MMA needed one.
In the co-main event, Constantinos Philippou defeated Lorenz Larkin via knockout, but not just any kind of knockout. It was a faceplant KO. Here’s the GIF. The end result of the fight doesn’t convey how competitive it was though. Both fighters had one another in danger until Larkin’s lights went off.
Also of note: Daron Cruickshank knocked out Erik Koch with a sweet head kick (and then landed like 200 more strikes because the ref stopped the fight too late).
Another thing: There was a guy in a Chuck Liddell suit, kinda like one of those weird furry costumes…except it was Chuck Liddell. No joke.
If you’d like a more in-depth recap, read our extensively detailed live-blog. If not, see the complete results below.
MAIN CARD RESULTS
– Matt Brown def. Erick Silva via TKO (punches), 2:11 of round 3
– Constantinos Philippou def. Lorenz Larkin via KO (punch), 3:47 of round 1
– Daron Cruickshank def. Erik Koch via TKO (head kick and punches), 3:21 of round 1
– Neil Magny def. Tim Means via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
– Soa Palelei def. Ruan Potts via KO (punch), 2:20 of round 1
– Chris Cariaso def. Louis Smolka via unanimous decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
PRELIMINARY CARD RESULTS
– Ed Herman def. Rafael Natal via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
– Kyoji Horiguchi def. Darrell Montague via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
– Zak Cummings def. Yan Cabral via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
– Johnny Eduardo def. Eddie Wineland via TKO (punches), 4:37 of round 1
– Nik Lentz def. Manny Gamburyan via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
– Justin Salas def. Ben Wall via KO (punches), 2:41 of round 1
– Albert Tumenov def. Anthony Lapsley via KO (punch), 3:56 of round 1