TUF 11 winner Court McGee‘s advanced conditioning became the difference maker in his win over Korean Top Team fighter Dongyi Yang Saturday at UFC Fight Night 25 in New Orleans, La.
The first 12 minutes of the fight was uneventful kickboxing, but the pace of the fight finally went into hyperdrive when Yang stumbled McGee to his knees with a left hand and then followed by jumping in with a left knee. The southpaw proceeded to climb on McGee’s back and seemed to be on his way to victory, but Yang found himself too high up and McGee managed to escape. From there, the better conditioned McGee took down the winded Yang twice and in the final seconds attached a mounted guillotine for the strong last impression.
McGee’s hand was raised on scores of 30-27, 29-28, 30-28.
McGee, who improved his record to 11-1 and is now a winner in all three of his UFC fights, is best known for kicking an addiction heroin in 2006 and then turning his life around with a career in MMA. Yang, a former heavyweight, fell to 10-2 overall and 1-2 in the UFC.