Wanderlei Silva has had some of his best moments in his career happen at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan and he had another memorable performance at UFC on FUEL TV 8 as he defeated Brian Stann in the second round by knockout.
The fight opened with both fighters having a short feeling out process before they started brawling. Both fighters landed big shots in the round, with Stann landing more total and significant strikes.
Stann did rock Silva in the first round and “The Axe Murderer” was able to weather the storm and make it out of the first round.
In what would end up being the final round, Silva would land a two punch combination that would drop Stann and would land several more punches on the ground before the referee came in to stop the fight.
Silva (35-12-1, 1NC) has now won two of his last three fights and both wins have come by knockout. Stann (12-6) has now lost back to back fights and this was his first lost by knockout since 2008.
Hunt wins 4th in a row with knockout win over Struve
There was only one heavyweight bout on the UFC on FUEL TV 8 card and Mark Hunt won his fourth straight fight with a third round TKO victory over Stefan Struve.
Hunt showed off an improved ground game as he showed willingness to go to the ground with his opponent. Struve was able to get the fight to the ground in the first two rounds, which included him getting the full mount and attempting an armbar submission.
In the final round, Hunt landed a left hook that dropped Struve and it was the equivalent of a walk off homerun in MMA. After he landed the left hook, he walked away since he knew Struve was out. Referee Herb Dean did not immediately call the fight, but stopped the fight once he saw the way Struve looked.
Hunt (9-7) has won four straight after losing his UFC debut and will likely get a top ten UFC heavyweight in his next fight. Struve (25-6) had won four in a row coming into this fight and this is his fourth lost in the UFC, with all of the losses coming by TKO/KO.
Sanchez wins close split decision over Gomi
Diego Sanchez won a very close split decision over Takanori Gomi in his return to the lightweight division. The fight was a catchweight bout of 158 pounds after Sanchez missed weight yesterday, but cardio did not appear to be an issue for him.
All three rounds were very close and could have gone either way. Gomi was able to land more strikes in the opening round, but Sanchez was successful on both of his takedown attempts in the opening round. Sanchez did have a submission attempt in the first round, but Gomi was able to escape the kneebar attempt.
In the second round, Gomi would once again outland his opponent and he would stop both of his takedown attempts. The third round would look just like the second round and the old style of Sanchez showed up in the final ten seconds of the round.
Two of the three judges would score the fight for Sanchez (24-5) and it’s the fifth straight fight that he has gone to the decision. The lost snaps a two fight losing streak for Gomi (34-9, 1NC) and he is now 3-4 in the UFC.
Okami defeats Lombard in battle of top ten middleweights
In a matchup of Thunder versus Lightning, Thunder won as Yushin Okami scored a split decision victory over Hector Lombard. This was the only fight on the card that matched up two top ten fighters as Okami was able to use his wrestling to get the victory.
The opening round was the closest of the three rounds as Okami was able to get two takedowns, but Lombard would be able to get back to his feet. In the second round, Okami had his best round as he was able to take the fight to the ground and overpower Lombard on the mat.
In the final round, Lombard opened the round by rushing at Okami and landing several punches. The punches appeared to hurt Okami and Lombard looked for a finish. Okami would go to the ground to pull guard and Lombard would follow him into the position. Instead of getting back to his feet, Lombard decided to fight on the ground with his opponent.
In the end, two of the judges scored the fight 29-28 for Okami and the other judge scored the fight 29-28 for Lombard. With the victory, Okami (29-7) has now won three in a row and has 13 wins in the UFC. Lombard (32-4-1, 1NC) has now dropped two of his three fights in the UFC, with both losses coming by split decision.
The complete results of UFC on FUEL TV 8 are below:
Main Card: (FUEL TV)
Wanderlei Silva def. Brian Stann via KO (punches) – Round 2, 4:08
Mark Hunt def. Stefan Struve via TKO (punch) – Round 3, 1:44
Diego Sanchez def. Takanori Gomi via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Yushin Okami def. Hector Lombard via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Rani Yahya def. Mizuto Hirota via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Dong Hyun Kim def. Siyar Bahadurzada via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Preliminary Card: (Facebook)
Brad Tavares def. Riki Fukuda via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Takeya Mizugaki def. Bryan Caraway via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Kazuki Tokudome def. Cristiano Marcello via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Alex Caceres def. Kyung Ho Kang via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Hyn Gyu Lim def. Marcelo Guimaraes via KO (knee) – Round 2, 4:00