Fight Zone

Kendall Grove Clay Guida Jason Guida Melvin Guillard Cody Guinn

So much for the lack of finishes from Jose Aldo. The UFC’s featherweight champ ended the “Rocky IV” dreams of Chad Mendes with a big knee and two brutal punches.

At the end of the first round, the champ beat the clock by landing a vicious knee. Mendes went limp and fell to his back where he ate two more punches squarely to the face. Referee Mario Yamasaki stopped things at the 4:59 mark of the first round in the main event of UFC 142 in Rio de Janeiro.

Aldo can be a lunatic sometimes when it comes to the post-fight celebration. Tonight, he set a new standard.

At the end of the fight, the second the Octagon door opened, he flew through it running into the crowd. In what was a near riot-like scene as the fans went crazy on Aldo. He was eventually carried on their shoulders and got back into the cage after a few minutes.

Aldo (21-1, 3-0 UFC) runs his win streak to 14 straight. He hasn’t lost a fight since 2005.

“Jose is a great champion. I wanted keep the pressure on and close the distance and get my hands on him,” Mendes said. He’s got great takedown defense and footwork. Watching a lot of his fights, I knew it would be tough to take him down. He was the better man.”

Mendes, a former elite college wrestler, had to get the fight to the ground to give himself a shot. Aldo was simply too big and too athletic. The champ stuffed all five of Mendes’ takedown attempts.

In between those tries, Mendes (11-1) ate kick after kick on his lead leg. It took roughly three minutes for the challenger to switch stances to protect that leg.

With just under a minute left in the round, Mendes actually got into a favorable position. He had standing back control and delivered some solid knees to the back of Aldo’s legs. Aldo freed himself with eight seconds left in the round. Mendes turned, ducked his head and tried to shoot forward for another takedown. Aldo’s reaction time was ridiculous as he landed a quick left knee. Mendes fell to his back where he ate two huge punches to force the stoppage.

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Martinsh Egle Eric Butterbean Esch Efrain Escudero Rashad Evans Urijah Faber

It may not be widely recognized as the deepest division in the world, but the bantamweights are starting to carve out quite a reputation in the UFC.

Mike Easton and Jared Papazian added to the cause by putting in some awesome work tonight on the UFC on FX 1 card in Nashville.

At the end of the fight, both fighters were still standing after throwing over 400 strikes at each other. Easton got the nod via majority decision, 30-27, 29-29 and 29-28, in a crowd-pleasing brawl that got better as the fight went along.

“He’s a tough dude. He was the champ back in the division where he was at,” Easton told UFC play-by-play voice Jon Anik. “All we wanted to do was please the fans and we rapped. We the 35ers baby! Nothing but non-stop action. We love to fight.”

Papazian (14-7, 0-1 UFC) making his UFC debut, was a huge underdog at plus-275, but he didn’t look intimidated whatsoever. Easton (12-1) is now 2-0 with the UFC.

Easton generally takes a while to get going, but when he did tonight it made for an awesome final round. With the fight on the line, Easton fired up the pace and Papazian, 23, stood in front him willing to bang. The fighters combined to wing 213 shots at each other over the final five minutes.

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Josh Neer is 2-0 in his fourth stint with the UFC as he choked Duane Ludwig unconscious in the first round of their bout at UFC on FX 1 at Nashville on Friday.

After the two clinched for the beginning of the first round, Duane Ludwig came in with several strikes that wobbled Neer, but then Neer answered back with jabs of his own. This patter continued to repeat until Ludwig tried for a takedown. Neer put in a deep guillotine. Ludwig raised his hand to tap, but was out before he even had the chance to tap. The bout was stopped at 3:04 of the first round.

Neer is 33-10 after this win. He has been in and out of the UFC, but has two straight stoppage wins since rejoining the promotion in October. Ludwig has been on a two-fight win streak, and now is 21-12.

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