Barnett (photo) won on his return to the Octagon after more than 18 months. Photo: Josh Hedges/UFC
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The “chubby” Roy Nelson He is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the most charismatic fighters in MMA. However, the same unusual form for a professional fighter that guarantees him many fans also takes its toll on his physical fitness and this Saturday, in the main fight of UFC Fight Night 75, ended up leading to his defeat against Josh Barnett at the Saitama Super Arena.
After an encouraging start, with several successful takedown attempts, Nelson saw his conditioning worsen dramatically throughout the first half of the fight and arrived at the third round completely exhausted. Very experienced, former Ultimate champion Josh Barnett approached the physical advantage very well and controlled the actions to guarantee another victory for his record.
At the end of the fight, Barnett, who has a long history in Japanese MMA, spoke to the local fans and scratched out a few words of Japanese to talk to the audience. “Thank you very much Japan, I love you, and every time I come here I feel very happy and really excited,” said the former champion, who returned to the ring for the first time since December 2013, in Japanese.
The fight
Famous for his powerful right hand, Roy Nelson surprised Barnett and managed a good takedown right away, spending more than half of the first round on top of his rival, applying a lot of pressure and working some blows on the ground and pound. Put back on their feet by referee Steve Percival, the opponents began to engage in frank exchanges, with Barnett also betting on powerful knees in the clinch.
In the second round, already visibly tired, the rivals let their pace drop and the fight lost its excitement. However, Barnett landed good strikes and took control of the situation, once again mixing well the punch sequences with the clinch game and knees. At the end of the partial, Nelson managed to balance his actions and landed a surprising high kick.
In the third and fourth rounds, physical conditioning spoke louder and Barnett, despite also being tired, managed to prevail over Nelson, whose exhaustion was evident. In the final stretch of the penultimate round, “Big Country” tried his last reaction and managed a good takedown.
In the fifth and decisive round, more of the same, and what we saw was again a monologue from Barnett, in front of a Nelson who, completely out of gas, did little to resist. In the decisive minutes, Nelson even had the chance to remain standing in the center of the octagon, but he purposely sought the fence to rest, at the same time as he tried to land one of his famous right hands, aiming for a miraculous knockout. However, the providential blow did not come and the victory went to Barnett, in a unanimous decision by the judges.
Ambulance Man scores another spectacular knockout
Hall (photo) scored another eye-catching knockout in the octagon. Photo: Josh Hedges/UFC
It looked like it was going to be a ride Gegard Mousasi. The Armenian-Dutch was left in the first round, for many he even managed a 10-8 after dominating the ground game, but the “Ambulance Man” Uriah Hall, one of the biggest underdogs of the night, surprised and achieved another of his traditional knockouts with a spinning kick.
The beginning of the end for Mousasi came at the beginning of the second round, when Hall landed a sharp side spinning kick to his face. Still staggering, Gegard took a knee before falling and suffering several punches before the referee stopped the fight 25 seconds into the match.
With the triumph, Uriah Hall He expanded his professional record to 12 wins and five losses, reaching two consecutive victories in just over a month in the Octagon. Mousasi, in turn, suffered his first knockout defeat in 45 MMA fights.
Horiguchi wins and gets emotional in post-fight speech
Horiguchi (photo) won again. Photo: Josh Hedges/UFC
After having his dream of winning the flyweight belt frustrated in April this year by the champion, Demetrious Johnson, who submitted him literally in the last second of the fight, Japanese Kyoji Horiguchi returned to the Octagon in great shape and simply gave North American Chico Camus no chance.
After a first round of a lot of movement, but little effective action, Horiguchi came back willing to end the break at the beginning of the second half and went all out against Camus. The Japanese's sequence of punches even opened a cut on the North American's eyebrow, which, despite the suffocation, resisted. From then on, Kyoji was a little more cautious, but did not reduce the intensity or volume of blows, ending the fight with a wide advantage over his rival.
At the end of the three rounds, Horiguchi was declared the winner in a unanimous decision, a triple 30×27, and expanded his professional record to 16 wins and just two losses.
Check out all the results from UFC Japan:
Josh Barnett won Roy Nelson in a unanimous decision by the judges (48×47, 48×47 and 50 x 45);
Uriah Hall won Gegard Mousasi by technical knockout (spinning kick, flying knee and punches) at 25s of R2;
Kyoji Horiguchi beat Chico Camus in a unanimous decision by the judges (30×27, 30×27 and 30×27);
Takeya Mizugaki beat George Roop in a unanimous decision by the judges (29×28, 29×28 and 29×28);
Diego Brandao beat Katsunori Kikuno by technical knockout (punches) at 28 seconds of R1;
Mizuto Hirota tied with Teruto Ishihara in the judges' decision (29×98, 28×29 and 29×29);
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Keita Nakamura won li jingliang by submission with a rear naked choke at 2m17s of R3;
Nick Hein beat Yusuke Kasuya in a unanimous decision by the judges (29×28, 30×27 and 30×27);
Kajan Johnson beat Naoyuki Kotani in a unanimous decision by the judges (29×28, 29×28 and 30×27);
Shinsho Anzai defeated Roger Zapata by technical knockout (medical interruption due to broken hand) at 47s of R3;
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