UFC 111: St. Pierre Dominates Hardy To Retain Welterweight Title

In the

111 main event Georges St. Pierre effortlessly retained his

Shane Carwin proved that he is for real by destroying Frank Mir with a huge flurry of punches in the first round of their interim heavyweight title fight. Carwin was able to control Mir by putting his back into the cage and landing short punches.

Kurt Pellegrino was able to use amazing ground control to avoid an early troubling position as Fabricio Camoes was able to take his back and work for the choke. In the end it was Pellegrino who was able to consistently find himself in better positions throughout the two rounds.Late in the second Camoes turned and gave up his back, at which point Pellegrino trapped an arm and sunk in a rear naked choke. Camoes tried to tough it out but in the end was forced to submit to the choke.

The win was Pellegrino’s fourth consecutive which should move him into a position to start fighting some of the bigger marquee names in the lighweight division.

Ben Saunders took a chance to make a huge leap in his career by stepping up to fight Jon Fitch rather than his scheduled fight with Jake Ellenberger. Dana White said that Saunders would earn a title shot with a win, but it looks like it’s going to take a while to get to that level.Jon Fitch controlled every second of the fight, getting takedowns in every round and staying on top landing grinding elbows and punches. Fitch wasn’t able to finish, which is his M.O. but he was completely dominant and didn’t waste the chance to not be pulled off the card.

The judges scored all three rounds for Fitch who will remain the #2 welterweight in the world with the win.

Nate Diaz made a successful move up in weight to 170 pounds with a completely dominant performance against Rory Markham. Diaz looked to be the better striker throughout the short fight.

In the Spike TV opener Ricardo Almeida made a successful debut at 170 pounds with a second round rear naked choke win over Matt Brown. From the opening bell Almeida was pushing Brown into the cage looking for takedowns. Brown defended well for the majority of the fight but in the second round during a scramble gave up his back.Once he had the chance to take Brown’s back, Almeida grabbed a body triangle and immediately began looking to use his high level jiu-jitsu game to lock in a rear naked choke for the finish.

Sadly the fight was not a great watch for an uninitiated casual fan as it was mostly Almeida seeking takedowns without much action happening. Still, the finish was nice and should open up a decent future for Almeida at welterweight.