Couture vs. Vera Results (Spoiler Altert)
By Josh Stein on Nov 14, 2009
I’ve put it below the fold, for those who want to watch the event on Spike without knowing the outcome.Main Card
Randy Couture defeats Brandon Vera by Unanimous Decision
Dan Hardy defeats Mike Swick by Unanimous Decision
Michael Bisping defeats Denis Kang by TKO @ 4:24 of Round 2
Matt Brown defeats James Wilks by TKO @ 2:27 of Round 3
Ross Pearson defeats Aaron Riley by TKO @ 4:38 of Round 2
Undercard
John Hathaway defeats Paul Taylor by Unanimous Decision
Terry Etim defeats Shannon Gugerty by Submission (Guillotine Choke) @ 1:24 of Round 2
Nick Osipczak defeats Matt Riddell by TKO @ 3:53 of Round 3
Dennis Siver defeats Paul Kelly by TKO @ 2:53 of Round 2
Alexander Gustafsson defeats Jared Hamman by KO @ 0:41 of Round 1
Andre Winner defeats Rolando Delgado by KO @ 3:22 of Round 1
Filed Under: MMA
Great nights of fights from Manchester. I hadn’t paid too much attention to the Ultimate Fighter Season 9 so Andre Winner, Ross Pearson, and James Wilks were unknown quantities to me.
Andre Winner and Alexander Gustafsson both caught my eye with first round ragdollings of their opponents. Though it’s safe to say that maybe the other guys might have been overmatched.
Ross Pearson really impressed me. The way he was blending clinch knees into his standup combos was just wild. That’s something you don’t see frequently, let alone so smoothly. He would throw a high kick and then flow straight into the clinch. Usually fighters tend to pause when they first get the Muay Thai clinch and wind up before throwing the knees.
Matt Brown showed that he is becoming a force in the Welterweight division. He has a good ground game and is always entertaining in the standup. I don’t know if he can be a threat to the better wrestlers in the division, but he could be a surprise stand-in if needed in the future.
Dennis Kang disappointed me tonight. He had Bisping close to finished but he eased off. Then he just kind of gave up in the second round. He has this way of throwing fights away when he’s still got a good chance. Either he falls into a stupid submission (which he almost did against the Count) or he fades. It’s just massively disappointing.
Speaking of disappointing fighters, Brandon Vera completely let that fight get away from him. He clipped Randy early and could have really poured the damage on but he opted to just sit in Randy’s best position, the clinch. In the second round he had Couture hurt and could have finished the fight but again he squandered the chance, then in the third round he was too gassed from sitting int he clinch to do anything. I have to say that this was only the second or third time I’ve ever stood up and yelled at the screen because a fighter had frustrated me so much with a stupid gameplan. He WALKED straight into Randy’s clinch and did nothing with it. He even had opportunities in the third round to do damage with knees but still just tried to wrestle with the dude instead of break it off. Simply one of the most disappointing fights I’ve seen in a long time. This hurts Vera a lot, despite having a good showing his stock is pretty much non-existant now. He’ll never be a contender in either Heavyweight or Light-Heavyweight.
Hardy showed up tonight and won a really solid fight against Mike Swick, who I had actually picked to win. I, like Swick, underestimated Hardy’s wrestling and power. Dude has iron gloves or something, he hits like a truck and ended up countering Mike’s counter punches. Dude is a technical boxer and a powerful one. That’s a scary combo. I don’t think he’ll be able to stop GSP’s takedowns but I might give him more of a chance than Alves, Kos, or Fitch had mostly due to his natural power at his size.