Efrain Escudero outscored a visibly out of shape Dan Lauzon at UFC 114, taking a three round decision 29-27 from all three judges. A point deduction cost Escudero the shut out in all three rounds.
The Spike TV broadcast of the UFC 114 undercard kicked off with a lightweight bout between Dan Lauzon and Efrain Escudero. Escudero was a winner of The Ultimate Fighter reality show. Lauzon had his coach and brother Joe Lauzon had a falling out in mid-camp and Lauzon had to find a new team to corner him for this fight.
Escudero scored the first blows of the fight with a combination of punches landed off a counter of some missed shots by Lauzon. A couple of minutes later he began to land knees to Lauzon’s face, one of them visibly bruised Lauzon’s eye. Then shot for a double leg take down but Lauzon held him off. Coming out of the clinch, Escudero was cut above the eye. Escudero seemed to pull back and wasn’t as aggressive the rest of the round.
Escudero’s corner stopped the bleeding between rounds. About a minute in, Escudero exploded and launched a vicious attack of punches and knees that had Lauzon ducking and covering. Then Lauzon shot in for a take down but Escudero stuffed it. After a little clinch time, Escudero came out punching. It took him a while to stalk down Lauzon but he cornered him with about 90 seconds left and fired off several knees to the face. Some leg kicks were sprinkled into the campaign against Lauzon then a punch dropped him with 50 seconds left. After a restart when Escudero didn’t follow Lauzon down.
The third saw an exchange of leg kicks ending with Escudero needing a break from catching a shot in the groin. Lauzon came out aggressive, but didn’t land much. Escudero had taken over the offense by the time they were a minute in. A restart from the standing clinch was followed by Escudero getting a collar tie and throwing jumping knees to Lauzon’s head. An aggressive Lauzon just gave Escudero more opportunities to counter him with combinations. Both men then traded flashy kicks with Lauzon’s scoring slightly better. Escudero was dancing and baiting Lauzon. Escudero landed a couple of kick to Lauzon’s groin with only a few seconds left and the ref deducted a point from Escudero. The two fighters both ended the fight attacking and landing shots.
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