UFC Fight Night 24 Results: Nogueira vs Davis from Key Arena
No time to feel sorry for yourself. Monday morning, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and his brother Antonio Rodrigio Nogeira will be back to work putting the finishing touches on their April 2, Grand Opening celebration at the their new gym on Miramar Road in San Diego.
In the main event of Saturday evening’s Ultimate Fight Night from the Key Arena in Seattle, Washington, unbeaten light heavyweight Phil “Mr. Wonderful” Davis (9-0) of the Alliance Training Center on Third Ave. in Chula Vista, defeated MMA icon, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (19-5) of the Black House Team Nogueira Gym on Miramar Road in San Diego. Even though “Minotoro” showed strong takedown defense early, Davis eventually wrestled Nogueira to the mat in both rounds two and three and controlled him from the top position. After the three rounds, all three judges ended with the same score, 30-27 for Davis.
Before this internationally televised PPV event, Davis had gone out on a limb and predicted his victory. “I’m very confident. I have a big advantage over Nogueira because the most dangerous wrestlers are the guys like me, the new guys. You don’t know what to expect or what they’re going to do. I can look at the things he’s done over the past 20 fights…or more, and prepare for his go to moves.”
In a welterweight bout Anthony Johnson (9-3) defeated the Brit Dan Hardy (23-9 MMA, 4-3 UFC) by unanimous decision. In the hyper-competitive world of the UFC, two straight defeats almost assures you’ll be released. Hardy now has three consecutive defeats. However, after the show, UFC president Dana White stated in his news conference that “The Outlaw” won’t necessarily be flying home with a pink slip. “We’ll have to wait and see. I [expletive] love that kid.”
At Saturday’s event, Hardy expected to stand and bang with Johnson, but he quickly switched to a wrestling base and controlled the fight on the floor en route to an unanimous-decision win.
In a lightweight bout of former TUF cast members Amir Sadollah (6-2) scored a second round TKO over Demarques Johnson (17-9) at 3:27.
Chan Sung Jung (11-3) ended up with the submission of the night (which earned him a $55,000 bonus) after he submitted Leonard Garcia (19-7-1) with a rarely seen twister submission. “The Korean Zombie” not only avenged his controversial 2010 split decision loss to Garcia, he also executed the first twister submission in Octagon history. What may haunt “The Bad Boy” the most about his loss was the fact there was only one-second remaining in Round 2 when he tapped.
Heavyweight Mike Russow (14-1) earned his second UFC victory by stopping Jon Madsen (7-1) after the second round when it was decided by a ringside physician that Madsen’s swollen left eye was too damaged to continue.
In a featherweight bout Mackens Semerzier (8-3) submitted Alex Caceres (5-3) with a rear naked choke at 3:18 of the opening round.
John Hathaway (14-1) defeated TUF veteran Kris McCray (6-2) via a split decision.
Even though 20 year-old Michael McDonald (12-1) won a lopsided unanimous decision victory over Edwin Figueroa (7-1) (all three score cards had it 30-27), their bantamweight fight provided such thrilling back-and-forth action, that it merited them the award of “Fight of the Night” to earn each an extra $55K.
Heavyweight Christian Morecraft (7-1) choked out Sean McCorkle (10-2) with a guillotine choke at 4:10 of the second round.
Lightweight Johny Hendricks (10-1) wasted no time stopping Anthony Waldburger (13-6) with a crushing left just 1:35 into their scheduled three round bout. The knockout earned him a $55,000 bonus for Knockout of the Night.
Middleweight Aaron Simpson (8-2) defeated Mario Miranda (12-3) by an unanimous decision. Scorecards read 30-26 and 30-27 twice.
Nik Lentz (23-3-2) defeated Waylon Lowe (10-4) in the final match with a tight guillotine at 2:24 of the final round.
The UFC’s first-ever trip to Seattle was the most successful UFC Fight Night event in the company’s history in terms of box office drawing a reported 14,212 attendees for a live gate of $1,182,850.
