Dos Anjos off to welterweight championship

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This article was published 16/12/2017 (2854 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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It wasn’t a UFC pay-per-view, but Winnipeg fight fans were treated to a pay-per-view-quality event on Saturday night.

The UFC brought the eight-sided steel cage to Bell MTS Place for UFC on Fox 26. There were 11 fights — five ending in KO/TKOs and one via submission — topped off with a hard-hitting main event.

The main event featured two former UFC champions — Robbie Lawler and Rafael dos Anjos fighting in welterweight action. The winner of the bout would become the No. 1 contender to face Tyron Woodley for the UFC welterweight championship.

The fight lasted all five rounds, but it wasn’t close. The Brazilian fighter, dos Anjos, gave Lawler a beating on route to a 50-45 unanimous decision victory.

“In my opinion, I just beat the toughest guy in the division and I think I’ve earned the title shot,” said dos Anjos, a former UFC lightweight champion. “I am 3-0 in this division and a former champion. I have earned my shot at Tyron Woodley and I will be champion of this division.”

The fight went the distance, but dos Anjos came very close to ending Lawler’s night early. In the second round, dos Anjos had Lawler standing with his back to the cage and he was hitting him with a flurry of body and head shots. Lawler didn’t buckle and somehow survived the round.

“I feel I was close to finishing him in the second,” dos Anjos said. “My hands are hurting from his head. He’s got a pretty tough head.”

The onslaught from dos Anjos continued for the rest of the fight, as he abused Lawler with leg kicks. Lawler’s right leg got to the point where in the fifth round, he couldn’t put any weight on it. Despite battling the sore leg for majority of the fight, Lawler refused to sit between rounds.

“A part of my strategy was to kill the legs,” said dos Anjos, 33.

Lawler wasn’t in a talking mood in the post-fight press conference. The 35-year-old veteran, who lost the welterweight title to Woodley back in July 2016, said he’s not sure what the future holds for him.

“I’m going to go home tomorrow and that’s as far as I’m thinking ahead,” Lawler said. The biggest surprise of the night went to Sacramento’s Josh Emmett, who knocked out No. 3-ranked featherweight Ricardo Lamas 36 seconds into the first round of the co-main event. It was the shortest fight of the night.

“My goal was to shock the world tonight,” Emmett said in his post-fight interview in the Octagon. “I think I might have.”

Lamas was originally scheduled to face Jose Aldo, but Aldo replaced an injured Frankie Edgar at UFC 218 on Dec. 2 and fought Max Holloway for the featherweight title. With Lamas left without a dance partner, Emmett, an unranked featherweight, accepted the challenge on three weeks’ notice. Emmett was 2½ pounds overweight and had to give Lamas 30 per cent of his purse.

No. 7-ranked light heavyweight Misha Cirkunov was the lone Canadian on the main card, as he challenged No. 3-ranked Glover Teixeira. Cirkunov, who was born in Latvia but lives and fights out of Toronto, suffered a disappointing TKO 2:46 into the first round at the hands of the Teixeira. Teixeira came close finishing the fight with a rear naked choke, but Cirkunov was able to slip out of the hold. Teixeira remained on top of Cirkunov, and pummelled him with a flurry of fists to end the fight.

It was the eighth time Teixeira finished a light heavyweight fight, which is tied for third-most in UFC history behind Jon Jones and Chuck Liddell, who have nine finishes on their historic resumes.

After the win, Teixeira called out undisputed UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier, who was sitting ringside doing commentary for Fox.

“The fans want to see us brawl in the middle of the octagon,” Teixeira said in his post-fight interview while looking at Cormier.

Julian (The Cuban Missile Crisis) Marquez, who was making his UFC debut, and England’s Darren Stewart stole the show on the preliminary card. The two middleweights won Fight of the Night for their two rounds of exchanging heavy blows. Marquez, a Kansas City, Mo., native, choked Stewart out at the 2:42 mark of the second round. Marquez improved his professional record to 7-1. Both Marquez and Stewart bring home an extra 50K for winning Fight of the Night honours.

“It would’ve been great to knock him out in one of those wild exchanges, but I just wanted the win however I could take it,” said Marquez, 27. “I really don’t care who I fight next. I just want the gold.”

All four of the Canadians who fought on the preliminary card came out victorious in front of the Winnipeg crowd. Jordan (Young Gun) Mein of Lethbridge, Alta., started off the night with a dominant unanimous decision win over Brazilian Erick Silva.

Montreal’s John (The Bull) Makdessi won via unaminous decision over American Abel Trujillo.

Nordine Taleb, who fights out of Montreal, knocked out England’s Danny Roberts in the second round with a head kick.

Chatham, Ont., native Chad (The Disciple) Laprise survived an early beat down from England’s Galore Bofando to come back and win via TKO in the first round. To the delight of the crowd, Laprise celebrated with the Canadian flag after his victory.

There were 8,862 fans in attendance at Bell MTS Place and the gate for the show was $1,005,273.75.