Lesner Overwhelmed by Overeem; Chavez Jr. – Rubio Set
Lesnar Retires After UFC 141 Defeat to Overeem
By Brian Knapp
Read more from Brian and others at the superb MMA website www.sherdog.com
Alistair Overeem abused Brock Lesnar at UFC 141.
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Brock Lesnar took one too many shots to the body from Alistair Overeem.
Overeem (36-11, 1 NC, 1-0 UFC) softened Lesnar with knees to the gut and finished him with a brutal liver kick in the UFC 141 main event on Friday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, forcing the stoppage 2:26 into round one. Afterward, Lesnar — who had roughly a foot of his colon removed in May following a second bout with diverticulitis — announced his retirement from mixed martial arts.
“My hat is off to Alistair Overeem. I’ve had a really difficult couple of years with my disease,” Lesnar said. “I’m going to officially say that tonight is the last night you will see me in the Octagon.
“Brock Lesnar is officially retired,” he added. “I promised my wife and my kids if I won this fight that I would get a title shot and that would be my last one, but if I lost tonight … everyone, you’ve been great.”
Lesnar (5-3, 4-3 UFC) attempted one single-leg takedown and was turned away by the hulking Dutchman, who showed no regard for the former World Wrestling Entertainment superstar’s skills. He walked through Lesnar’s punches, bullied his way into the clinch and fired off the knees for which he has become feared. Lesnar slowly wilted.
Unable to get the fight the ground, Lesnar ate one last kick to the abdomen and crumpled at the base of the cage. There, Overeem swarmed with punches until referee Mario Yamasaki intervened on the onetime UFC champion’s behalf.
“Today was all about bad intentions. First or second round — I promised,” said Overeem, now the number one contender for Junior dos Santos’ UFC heavyweight crown. “Nice little K-1 body kick. I trained the takedown defense a lot. Brock is an excellent wrestler, so I had to step up my game.”
Cerrone No Match for Diaz
“The Ultimate Fighter” Season 5 winner Nate Diaz staked his claim as a contender in the lightweight division, as he overwhelmed Donald Cerrone with sharp, accurate punches to the head and body en route to a unanimous decision in the co-main event.
All three judges scored it for Diaz (15-7, 10-5 UFC): 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28.
“I trained hard. I have really good training partners,” Diaz said. “I’ll have to sit back and watch [the tape]. I got poked in the eye a couple of times [by his] fist, so I hope I didn’t look too sloppy. I’m glad I got the win.”
Diaz blasted through Cerrone’s defenses with a blistering multi-punch combination inside the first minute of the fight, and “Cowboy” was never the same. Diaz landed repeatedly to the head and body throughout the one-sided 15-minute encounter, refusing to allow his opponent a moment’s rest. Cerrone, bleeding heavily from the mouth and nose, turned to his kicks in the second round, and while effective in short bursts, he never gained a foothold in the match from an offensive perspective.
The scene replayed itself over and over again. Outside of the occasional leg sweep, knee to the body and head kick, Cerrone (17-4, 1 NC, 4-1 UFC) looked nothing like the man who had won four fights in the previous 10 months. He simply had no answer for Diaz, a 26-year-old Stockton, Calif., native who will carry a two-fight winning streak into his next appearance.
“I got head butted by my horse and it split my lip,” Cerrone said, “but this guy … I guess you’ve got to be from Stockton to be tough. All the s— I was talking, he brought it. I promise I’ll fight my ass off every time, as best as I can give y’all.”
Hendricks laid Fitch out.Hendricks Left Hook Flattens Fitch in 12 Seconds
A beautiful left hook from Johny Hendricks laid waste to former welterweight title contender Jon Fitch in a featured matchup at 170 pounds. It was over 12 seconds after it began.
Fitch (23-4-1, 1 NC, 13-2-1 UFC) — who had not been finished in more than nine years and had lost only once in his previous 23 appearances — threw a straight right hand, backed away and ate the punch that ended his night. The left hook found its mark, and Fitch collapsed. Hendricks (12-1, 7-1 UFC) moved in and fired off one more left hand for good measure, as referee Steve Mazzagatti stepped in to prevent Fitch from absorbing further punishment.
“What did I tell everybody? In every interview I did, I said that I had a left hand,” said Hendricks, a two-time NCAA wrestling champion at Oklahoma State University. “Everybody has been counting me out. I knew if I hit him with it, I could lay him out.”
Gustafsson Stops Matyushenko in First
Fast-rising Swede Alexander Gustafsson stopped former International Fight League champion Vladimir Matyushenko on first-round punches in a light heavyweight showcase. The end came 2:13 into round one.
Matyushenko (26-6, 7-4 UFC), faced with a length and speed deficit, was tentative from the start. Gustafsson blasted him off his feet, as he caught the Belarusian moving forward and clipped him with a stout left jab. Matyushenko went down and covered up in an attempt to defend himself. Gustafsson (13-1, 5-1 UFC) would not be denied, as he let loose with hammerfists and punches for the finish.
“I was prepared for three hard rounds,” said Gustafsson, who has rattled off four consecutive victories since his submission loss to current Alliance MMA teammate Phil Davis in April 2010. “Vladimir is a tough guy. I look up to him. He’s a really good fighter, and he’s been here a long time. It was my day today. I got the biggest win of my life.”
Hettes Dominates Phan at 145
The undefeated Jim Hettes went the distance for the first time, but he was no less dominant in doing so. The 24-year-old prospect wrecked “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 12 semifinalist Nam Phan in the clinch, struck for repeated trip takedowns, unleashed with brutal ground-and-pound and attacked with various submission attempts en route to a lopsided unanimous decision.
All three cageside judges scored it for Hettes (10-0, 2-0 UFC): 30-25, 30-25 and 30-26.
Hettes roared out of the gates and put together as lopsided a first round as one could imagine. He did everything under the sun from an offensive standpoint and appeared close to putting away Phan with punches and elbows from top position. By the time the first five minutes were over, a dazed Phan retreated to his corner, blood streaming from his left eye courtesy of a well-placed elbow.
Not much changed in rounds two and three, as Hettes continued to punish his featherweight foe. He closed with a flurry in the third, where he moved to mount and threatened Phan (17-10, 1-3 UFC) with an arm-triangle choke before abandoning the hold in favor of more punches and elbows. It was a complete performance.
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Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to fight Feb. 4
By Dan Rafael, ESPN.com
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Nonito Donaire, two of boxing’s brightest young stars, will fight in separate bouts on HBO’s “World Championship Boxing” on Feb. 4 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, promoter Top Rank announced Wednesday.
Chavez will face Mexican countryman Marco Antonio Rubio in a scheduled 12-round middleweight bout, although it is unclear if Chavez will be defending the WBC version of the title.
Donaire, one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world, vacated his two bantamweight belts and is moving up in weight to face former junior featherweight titlist Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. for the now-vacant 122-pound belt Vazquez used to hold.
A news conference to announce the card is scheduled for Tuesday in San Antonio.
Chavez claimed a middleweight belt in June via majority decision against Sebastian Zbik and made his first defense on Nov. 19, a fifth-round TKO of Peter Manfredo Jr.
“The new year promises to be even bigger for Julio, but first he is in a difficult challenge against No. 1-ranked challenger Marco Antonio Rubio,” Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said. “This should be a real battle.”
Whether Chavez’s belt will be at stake is unclear because the WBC earlier this month ordered him to defend against lineal champion Sergio Martinez, who very badly wants to fight Chavez. The WBC’s order left open the possibility of the mandatory fight being put off if the Chavez and Martinez camps can come to an alternative agreement.
Arum, however, has no interest in making a fight in which Chavez would be a massive underdog. Martinez is pressing the WBC to strip Chavez, so the status of the belt is up in the air.
“We know Chavez is fighting Rubio on Feb. 4 in San Antonio, but some things need to be cleaned up,” Top Rank vice president Carl Moretti said. “There needs to be more clarity with regard to the WBC situation. But it’s been known for a while that Chavez is fighting on Feb. 4 and that Sergio Martinez is going to fight in March.
“For anyone to think or say that it is possible for them to fight each other on that (March) date, that is just a pipe dream. The grandstanding about the title by everybody is just that.”
Chavez (44-0-1, 31 KOs) has a significant Mexican fan base in San Antonio and will be fighting at the Alamodome for the third time. In 2007, he fought on a Manny Pacquiao undercard there, and in June 2010 he headlined a Top Rank pay-per-view card and scored a breakout victory against John Duddy.
Rubio (53-5-1, 47 KOs) has won 10 fights in a row. He has not lost since being stopped in the ninth round by then-middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik in February 2009.
Donaire (27-1, 18 KOs), known as the “Filipino Flash,” is a former flyweight and interim junior bantamweight titlist. He broke out this year with a crushing second-round knockout of three-division titlist Fernando Montiel in February to win a pair of bantamweight belts.
Donaire made one defense, a shutout decision against junior bantamweight titlist Omar Narvaez at New York’s Madison Square Garden Theater on Oct. 22, before deciding to move up in weight.
Puerto Rico’s Vazquez (21-1-1, 18 KOs), the son of former three-division titleholder Wilfredo Vazquez Sr., lost his junior featherweight title to Jorge Arce on a 12th-round knockout in May on the Pacquiao-Shane Mosley undercard. Arce vacated and moved down to bantamweight last month, leaving Vazquez and Donaire to vie for the title.
Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter @danrafaelespn.
