UFC 113: Shogun Pummels Machida, Avenges 104 Loss

The rematch of one of the most controversial fights in the past few years in MMA ended without getting out of the first round. The first round was very even while it lasted with both men having moments of landing solid shots. A few points in the fight Machida was able to get body lock takedowns but Shogun escaped to standing with no problem both times. However, in a striking exchange Machida went down and Shogun jumped into mount and landed a flurry of punches that knocked the champion out cold.

With the win Mauricio “Shogun” Rua is the new UFC champion. This is a height that many people could never see Shogun getting to following a disastrous UFC debut against Forrest Griffin.

Josh Koscheck used his high level MMA wrestling to completely dominate his fight with Paul Daley at UFC 113. It was not much different from what most experts predicted as Koscheck would use footwork to try and avoid any direct striking exchanges before shooting in for quick takedowns. On the ground Josh did not really attempt to finish the fight at any point despite openings for several submissions and even opportunities from mount to try to finish the fight but instead was content to dominate position and take the decision. Still, there was no doubt that he won every round and that is priority #1 for every fighter.

After the fight Daley walked up to Koscheck and landed a sucker punch before being grabbed by the referee to stop any further attack. It was a shocking and shameful moment and one that no doubt will result in a suspension, fine and possibly even loss of contract for the British welterweight.

Jeremy Stephens came into his bout with Sam Stout expected to be looking for single shots while eating combinations from Sam Stout. Instead it was Stephens that was able to avoid the majority of damage standing while finding places to land his own punches.

For the first two rounds Stephens was able to land and hurt Stout over and over. Stout was attempting to put money in the bank by landing punches to the body and kicks to the leg and that did pay off in the third round when Stephens was hurt multiple times by leg kicks. Still, without the ability to finish the fight Stout was at a significant disadvantage after clearly losing he first two rounds.

Kimbo Slice made his second official trip to the Octagon against former NFL player Matt Mitrione. There was not much that went well for Kimbo beyond a takedown early in the first round after Mitrione missed a head kick. After the takedown Mitrione locked up a triangle choke but Kimbo did manage to survive.

Once Mitrione got it back to standing he landed a lot of hard punches and leg kicks that started to badly hurt Slice. Kimbo continued to bet more and more tired and in the second round he did nothing beyond eating punches, more leg kicks and eventually getting mounted and pounded on for over a full minute. The fight should have been stopped much earlier but eventually it was clear that Kimbo had taken enough and the referee stopped the bout.

In the opening bout of the main card of UFC 113 Alan Belcher survived the power punching of Patrick Cote to use a takedown directly onto his face to open up a rear naked choke for the submission win.

The first round featured Belcher using speed and kicks to stay away from Cote, who was returning from a major knee injury. Belcher also reversed positioning on the ground to spend the last portion of the round working from top dropping punches and elbows to open a cut by Cote’s right eye.