LAS VEGAS, NV, December 31, 2011 – All the illusions of an unstoppable Brock Lesnar “Frane Trane” running right through a debuting Alistair Overeem on his way to a heavyweight title shot were washed away last night as “The ‘Reem” stopped him right in his tracks to win their bout by TKO in the middle of the first round. Previous to the bout Overeem had been the consensus favorite but many still questioned whether he could capitalize on his striking advantages without the equally-massive former UFC HWT champion could take him to the ground.
The short answer to that question was yes.
Alistair showed good patience early, maintaining enough distance to avoid the takedown setups that never came. For his part, Brock hardly did anything to stay involved in this fight. He seemed content to stand from afar while winging the occasional strike at the K1 World Grand Prix kickboxing champion, none of which threatened save for perhaps an inadvertent eye poke. Unable to take his opponent down, Brock was left completely befuddled until a Bas Rutten-like left liver kick short-circuited his system and put him down. Overeem quickly swarmed in with the requisite flurry of punches to his grounded opponent to end the fight and subsequently his opponent’s career.
Brock is done. “I can now say that this is the last time you’ll see me in the octagon,” he said in his post-fight interview. He now leaves the sport a former UFC champion after 8 fights in which he went 5-3.
As for Overeem, his next challenge will be a formidable one in the organization’s consensus #1 heavyweight in champion Junior dos Santos. “Cigano” is the only man to have put away Cain Velasquez and has also knockout out Shane Carwin, Fabricio Werdum, and more on his way to the title. Now he’ll look to be the first man to defeat the massive Dutchman since 2007 in order to keep his belt.
In the co-main event of the evening, Stockton’s Nate Diaz brought the fight once again for the 209. Love them or hate them, the Diaz brothers always come to fight and that he did just that against Donald Cerrone at UFC 141. “Cowboy” was largely left with no answers for the plethora of projectile-like punches that came his way for fifteen straight minutes in the three-round fight. Cerrone’s only offense came in the form of several low kicks that took Diaz off his feet. Unfortunately he was unable to capitalize from there as he was too tentative and wary of Diaz’ BJJ to follow him to the ground. Looking at this performance, it’s clear that Nate Diaz has improved mightily from the fighter he’s been in previous years.
Look for Diaz to take Cerrone’s spot in the top five at 155 and make a title run. At this point, he’s probably 1-2 fights away from challenging for the belt.
Next up was Texas Johny Hendricks, who took all of 12 seconds to end Jon Fitch’s longtime title aspirations. The AKA product was widely regarded as the #2 contender at 170 and had been chasing a rematch with Georges St. Pierre previous to this bout but that is no longer the case after the Team Takedown (Arlington) trained Hendricks sent him tumbling back down the divisional mountain.
“I did what GSP and BJ Penn couldn’t do,” said Johny in the post-fight press conference. “I think I belong where I’m at now, you know what I mean? I just beat the number two ranked guy. GSP couldn’t do it in five rounds. B.J. Penn couldn’t do it, love the guy to death, he couldn’t do it. I just knocked the number two guy out in 12 seconds; you know what I’m saying? Where does that put me? Hopefully for a title, but if it doesn’t, I’m going to have to go out there and prove it again.”
A pair of young prospects capped off the UFC 141 pay-per-view card with impressive performances that put the world on notice.
At light heavyweight, 24 year old Swede Alexander Gustafsson secured his fourth straight finish against veteran Vladimir Matyushenko via first-round knockout. Alexander took his time before catching “The Janitor” with a short left jab that dropped him. A few punches later and the referee was forced to step in for the TKO victory. With this victory, expect Gustafsson’s next bout to take place in a few months against another tough opponent at the UFC on Fuel TV 2 event scheduled for the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.
Closing out the evening was newcomer Jimy Hettes, a Ricardo Almeida-trained Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt who entered UFC 141 undefeated at 9-0. His win streak is no in double digits after a dominant performance over longtime veteran Nam Phan. The bout ended up being a takedown clinic for the east coast native as Hettes took down Phan seemingly at will and dominated on the ground for the duration of the three-round bout. With this win, Hettes now skyrockets to the top of the list as far as potential breakout stars go in 2012.
Here are all the results from the action in Vegas last night.
UFC 141 Quick Results
UFC 141 – Main Card Results (PPV)
• Alistair Overeem over Brock Lesnar via TKO in R1
• Nate Diaz over Donald Cerrone via unanimous decision
• Johnny Hendricks over Jon Fitch via KO in R1
• Alexander Gustafsson over Vladimir Matyushenko via TKO in R1
• Jim Hettes over Nam Phan via unanimous decision
UFC 141 – Preliminary Card Results (Spike TV and Facebook)
• Ross Pearson over Junior Assunção via unanimous decision
• Danny Castillo over Anthony Njokuani via split decision
• Dong Hyun Kim over Sean Pierson via unanimous decision
• Jacod Volkmann over Efrain Escudero via unanimous decision
• Matt Riddle vs. Luis Ramos – cancelled after Riddle wasn’t medically cleared
• Diego Nunes over Manny Gamburyan via split decision
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