UFC on Fox 7 Review

Benson Henderson defeats Gilbert Melendez by split decision (48-47, 47-48, 48-47)

The main event of the night, this fight had the crowd hot as it featured the hometown favourite Gilbert Melendez, the last reigning Strikeforce champion, going against the UFC fighter of the year 2012, the reigning Lightweight champion, Benson ‘Bendo’ Henderson. The action was even throughout the fight, with the champ employing innovative means including a jab to the thigh, while Melendez won with the conventional tactics like straight punches and the occasional knee. Finally, it came down to the wire and Bendo walked away with a split decision victory, much to the chagrin of the crowd. He even thought it opportune to propose to his girlfriend…all the while the boos rained!

Daniel Cormier defeats Frank Mir via unanimous decision (30-27 x 3)

The much touted Daniel Cormier faced off against the perennial gatekeeper of the HW division of the UFC, Frank Mir, in his debut in the UFC. Given the strong ground-game that both possess, it was of some surprise that the 2 men kept the fight standing. DC used his strength and leaned in on Mir and employed his dirty boxing to good effect. Mir, who had a 5-inch and 20 pound advantage, looked sluggish and fatigued midway through the 1^st round and never really looked like posing a threat to the stocky DC. At the end of 3 lacklustre rounds, Cormier was declared the winner on all the judges’ scorecards on account of being the more active fighter.

Josh Thomson defeats Nate Diaz via TKO at 3:44 of Round 2

In the best fight of the night, Josh Thomson, who fought in the UFC after 8 years, showed the world how to counter the unconventional tactics of the Diaz brothers that was first successfully employed by ‘The natural born killer’ Carlos Condit against Nick Diaz about a year ago. Moving away from the punches and circling around his opponent, “The Punk” kept landing kicks on the prone leg of Diaz who set himself up for 2 headkicks, the 2^nd of which knocked him woozy. Thomson pounced on him in impressive fashion and finished the fight just when the corner of Diaz threw in the towel. It was an impressive victory to say the least and probably just might set in talks of a title-shot.

Matt Brown defeats Jordan Mein via TKO at 1:00 of Round 2

This bout opened the Fox part of the show, and set things in motion for more scintillating fights to follow. Matt Browne met Jordan Mein, a young Canadian with impressive credentials and a lot of hype surrounding him. But nothing that the veteran Browne would be impressed about, as he took the best that the young Mein had to dish out and struck back with ferocity to finish the fight in the 2^nd round.