Ultimate Fight Night 21 has come to a close. It was a solid showing for the UFC in a card that featured Kenny Florian facing former Pride sensation Takanori Gomi and season 10 of the Ultimate Fighter winner Roy Nelson taking on Stefan Struve.
Just before Bruce Buffer was going to introduce Stefan Struve, the lights went out in the building. It was not much longer after that before Roy Nelson turned the lights out on Stefan Struve. In 39 seconds of the first round Nelson caught Struve with powerful over hand right that sent him to the floor. Nelson was on top quickly to finish the fight.
Nelson is a step above many of the UFC heavyweights, however we will have to wait and see if he can handle the upper tier of the heavyweight division.
In the main event of the evening, Takanori Gomi made his much anticipated debut in the UFC. Gomi's credentials are obvious, 36 fights, first Pride lightweight champ, and former Shooto lightweight champ. However, Kenny Florian was too much for former Pride star.
Florian used a crisp jab to work over Gomi for the entire fight. Gomi was unable to get past that jab and never got anything going to speak of. It was not that Gomi looked bad or was in bad shape it was just Florian was that much better. Florian was able to score a takedown in the third before finishing the fight with a rear naked choke.
Many had already started talk of a Gomi-BJ Penn rematch, but Florian put the bounce on that talk.
It will be interesting to see where both Florian and Gomi go from here. I suspect that a fight with Gray Maynard may be in the future for Kenny Florian, while Gomi will get a step down in competition.
Below are the complete results of the event.
MAIN CARD
•Kenny Florian def. Takanori Gomi via submission (rear-naked choke) Round 1, 2:52
•Roy Nelson def. Stefan Struve via KO (strikes) - Round 1, 0:39
•Jorge Rivera def. Nate Quarry via TKO (strikes) - Round 2, 0:29
•Ross Pearson def. Dennis Siver (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
PRELIMINARY CARD
•Andre Winner def. Rafaello Oliveira via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 30-27)
•Jacob Volkmann def. Ronys Torres via split decision (28-29, 30-27, 30-27)
•Nik Lentz def. Rob Emerson via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 29-28)
•Gleison Tibau def. Caol Uno via TKO (punches) - Round 1, 4:13
•Yushin Okami def. Lucio Linhares via TKO (doctor's stoppage) - Round 2, 2:47
•Gerald Harris def. Mario Miranda via TKO (punches) - Round 1, 4:49
•Charlie Brenneman def. Jason High via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
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