Four of the five former NCAA college wrestlers competing at UFC 112: Invincible were indeed invincible in their bouts Saturday in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Former collegiate matmen Frankie Edgar, Matt Hughes, Mark Munoz and Phil Davis all came out winners at UFC 112. However, Matt Veach, former Iowa State wrestler, was submitted by Paul Kelly via Guillotine Choke at 3:41 in the second round.
- Frankie Edgar, who wrestled at Clarion University in Pennsylvania, and is now an assistant coach at Rutgers in New Jersey, scored a stunning upset over BJ Penn in five rounds to win the UFC lightweight championship. According to officials' scorecards, Penn had won the first three rounds, as well as the fifth... with a difference of opinion on who won the fourth. However, when the final scores were released, the judges had Edgar winning 50-45, 48-47, and 49-46.
- Matt Hughes, who made a name for himself on the mats at Eastern Illinois University, went up against Renzo Gracie. After a slow first round (with two officials scoring it a tie, one awarding it to Gracie), Hughes won the second round on all three official scorers' cards. However, it was all moot, as the former collegiate wrestler knocks Gracie to the mat with two rights to the chin; the referee stopped the action at 4:40 of round three.
- Mark Munoz, former Oklahoma State wrestler who won the 197-pound crown at the 2001 NCAAs, came back from losing the first round to mount a powerful attack on Kendall Grove in the second. The referee stepped in to stop the match at 2:50 of the second.
- Phil Davis, who won the 197-pound title for Penn State at the 2008 NCAA championships, got Alexander Gustafsson to submit via an Anaconda Choke at 4:55 in Round 1.
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Resources
Sherdog.com: Play-by-play of UFC 112 matches... and detailed write-up of featured bouts
TheOpenMat: TOM's Preview of UFC 112
InterMat: UFC 112 Preview
College Wrestling 101: Links to articles answering basic questions about wrestling, including rules, scoring, uniforms, more
Follow College Wrestling Examiner Mark Palmer on Twitter
Comments
No surprise. Men who go out for wrestling have plenty of gas in the tank and probably wouldn't walk away from a fistfight, so wear the other guy down and nail him with a haymaker or two. A little submission defense and you've got a FIGHTER. Then again, in one of the early UFCs champion wrestler Kevin Jackson went in all cocky against Frank Shamrock and lasted less than a minute before Frank nailed him with an armbar. He wouldn't tap, the ref stopped it, he complained and the ref told him, "I couldn't let him break your arm." Well, why not? Pride cometh before a fall.
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