Neither achieved a crowd-pleasing, highlight-reel finish Saturday, but both Phil Davis and Anthony Johnson walked away from their UFC Fight Night headline bouts with victories.
In the case of Phil Davis, he defeated a legend in Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and yet failed to make the impact his contemporary Jon Jones did last weekend. The National Champion wrestler struggled in the early part of the fight, with Nogueira, who had been taken down frequently in his prior two fights with Jason Brilz and Ryan Bader, stuffing all of his double-leg takedowns. That enabled the veteran MMA fighter to connect with strikes over the first round-and-a-half.
But midway through round two, Davis discovered that Nogueira’s improvements in takedown defense did not apply to single-leg takedowns, and he started to bring Nogueira to the mat at will. He dominated the fight from top position and ended up winning a unanimous decision (seemingly due to his aggression, the judges also gave him round one)
After dropping Dan Hardy with a high kick attempt early in the first round, Johnson quickly realized the extent to which he could control Hardy on the ground. From there, wrestling was the go-to for Johnson, who exploited Hardy’s ground weakness by repeatedly putting the English fighter on the mat and controlling him from the top. The fans did not view this as an epically exciting fight, but it was enough for Johnson to claim an easy decision in his return to the Octagon.
What else happened on the show? Results follow:
Nik Lentz b. Waylon Lowe via submission (guillotine) at 2:24 of Round Three
Aaron Simpson b. Mario Miranda via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26)
Johny Hendricks b. TJ Waldburger via TKO (punches) at 1:35 of Round One
Christian Morecraft b. Sean McCorkle via technical submission (guillotine choke) at 4:13 of Round Two
Michael McDonald b. Edwin Figueroa via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
John Hathaway b. Kris McCray via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Mackens Semerzier b. Alex Caceres via submission (rear naked choke) at 3:18 of Round One
Mike Russow b. Jon Madsen via TKO (doctor’s stoppage) at 5:00 of Round Two
Chan Sung Jung b. Leonard Garcia via submission (twister) at 4:59 of Round Two
Amir Sadollah b. DaMarques Johnson via submission (strikes) at 3:27 of Round Two
Anthony Johnson b. Dan Hardy via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Phil Davis b. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)