(via UFC on FOX)
Lyoto Machida may have been the slight favorite heading into Saturday’s fight against Yoel Romero, but “The Soldier of God” nearly sent him to Jesus with a series of (as Thomas Myers best described them) “murderous” elbows in the third round of their Fight Night 70 headliner.
Video highlights and a complete list of results are after the jump.
Despite some success on the feet early, “The Dragon” just wasn’t sitting down on enough of his punches and kicks to really put Romero in any danger as the fight progressed, and as the Cuban Olympian (Cubolympian?) began to find his range late in the second, a familiar, foreboding vibe settled in the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino — the kind of vibe most of us felt in Machida’s last bout against Luke Rockhold. Something bad was going to happen to one of the nicest guys in the sport, and soon.
Granted, most of us who had that feeling probably didn’t assume”soon” meant “within 5 seconds of being taken down”, but that’s exactly what happened. Romero torpedoed Machida with ground-n-pound — exposing perhaps the biggest hole in Machida’s game in the process — then proceeded to nearly torpedo his own career with some ill-timed remarks during his post-fight interview (remarks which he would backtrack on later that evening). Being neither a Spanish speaker nor someone who witnessed the comments live, I’m not prepared to take Romero to task at the moment — though I wouldn’t exactly be shocked if a guy nicknamed “Soldier of God” had some less than favorable opinions on marriage equality.
Elsewhere on the card, some exciting finishes happened in some mostly inconsequential fights. Fight Night 70 may have held one of the most destitute main card lineups in recent history (Lorenz Larkin? In a co-main?), but thankfully, these garbage-ass matchups led to moments like this:
Yep, that’s former hockey enforcer Steve Bosse returning from a two-year retirement to eat one of the cleanest (and therefore nastiest) head kicks you will ever see courtesy of Thiago Santos. How many Thiago Santos’ are there in the UFC, anyway? Like 10 Thiagos Santoses? That question aside, I think any MMA fighter currently on a 2+ year hiatus from the sport should take note of the performances of Bosse — and to a lesser extent: Cain Velasquez — when considering a comeback. That note being: DON’T COME BACK OR YOU WILL LIKELY DIE.
Speaking of dying, Fight Night 70′s aforementioned co-main between Larkin and Santiago Ponzinibbio ended with the former beating the latter into the living death. I don’t know if Herb Dean fell asleep at the wheel or if the 30-some punches Larkin landed on Ponzinibbio was just Karma’s way of paying back Larkin for the unnecessary beating King Mo put on him, but in either case, it was almost enough to mar what was a fun, back-and-forth fight beforehand.
Is is safe to slap a “Worst TUF Winner Ever” label on Eddie Gordon yet, or is that an honor that Colton Smith is destined to hold? James Wilks maybe? Anyway, Gordon ate his third consecutive defeat since winning that season of TUF that we all agreed to never talk about again via a third round submission to someone named Antonio Carlos Jr. When you’re losing to Brazilians with as names as forgettable as that (see also: Santos, Thiago), it’s safe to say that you are not on your way to becoming a household name yourself, which is a shame, because the UFC needs more Matt Serra in their lives (as do we) and they’re only just starting to realize it.
The full results for Fight Night 70 are below.
Main card
Yoel Romero def. Lyoto Machida via TKO at 1:38 of round three.
Lorenz Larkin def. Santiago Ponzinibbio via TKO at 3:07 of round two.
Antonio Carlos Junior def. Eddie Gordon via submission (rear naked choke) at 4:33 of round three.
Thiago Santos def. Steve Bosse via KO at 0:29 of round one.
Hacran Dias def. Levan Makashvili via split decision (29-28 x2, 28-29)
Undercard
Alex Oliveira def. Joe Merritt via unaimous decision (30-27 x3)
Leandro Silva def. Lewis Gonzalez via unanimous decision (30-27 X2, 29-28)
Tony Sims def. Steve Montgomery via TKO at 2:47 of round one.
Sirwan Kakai def. Danny Martinez via unanimous decision (30-27 x3)
The post Fight Night 70 Highlights/Results: Romero Obliterates Machida, Larkin, Santos, and Sims Score Big KO’s appeared first on Cagepotato.