What: The Ultimate Fighter 16 (TUF 16) Finale Results — Facebook preliminary card stream
Where: The Joint at The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada
When: December 15, 2012
Reuben Duran vs. Hugo Viana — Bantamweight bout
Viana landed a clubbing right hand off the bat, then flattened Duran with another and added a left hook for good measure. Duran clinched up with under-hooks to catch his breath but Viana spun him onto the cage, broke the tie-up and flung wide-sailing rights and lefts that were Chute Boxe-esque in ferocity, catching and dropping Duran a second time. The third time was a charm, as Duran was broad-sided by another Mack Truck of a right hand from Viana to elicit the 1st-round stoppage.
In his bantamweight debut, Hugo “Wolverine” Viana defeats Reuben Duran by 1st-round KO (punch), Round 1.
Mike Rio vs. John Cofer — Lightweight bout
Cofer started out landing the cleaner shots and dazed Rio with a straight left. Rio took him down but Cofer used a heel hook to sweep, ending the round on top despite Rio being in the process of reversing him with the exact same sweep at the bell.
Cofer went back to work and landed a nice kick to the body and touched him up with the straight left in the 2nd. Rio scored a takdown and went right into side control but couldn’t do much and they were restarted. Cofer continued to bore his straight left through, then went to clinch control with knees. With a minute left in a round that was almost all Cofer, Rio hit a single leg and advanced into full mount, then took standing back control when Cofer attempted to scramble free. Showing good patience, Cofer shook him loose and ended the frame on top.
It was more straight lefts for Cofer in the 3rd until Rio failed on a single, but doggedly pursued a trip from the body lock and landed in side control. Rio held side mount for a while and tried to isolate an arm; he seemed to have bailed on the grip but snatched the arm back up during a Cofer sweep attempt and transitioned to an armbar. Again, it looked unsuccessful at first, but Rio stuck with the armbar and had to work hard for it, but eventually forced the tapout.
Mike Rio defeats John Cofer by submission (armbar), Round 3.
Jared Papazian vs. Tim Elliott — Flyweight bout
In a crazy 1st round, Elliott took down Papazian, who was making his flyweight premiere, but fell back for a guillotine shortly after. With nothing doing, Elliott chained together submission attempts off his back to put Papazian on the defensive. The fighters separated during an explosive scramble and Papazian blasted Elliott, who had his back on the fence while sitting upright, with an illegal knee.
Papazian looked to have thrown the strike before Elliott was down but he clearly met the definition of a grounded fighter by the time it landed. Elliott staggered around when he tried to stand back up and was genuinely dazed. After taking a few moments to recover, Elliott proved he had his wits about him by wobbling Papazian with a combination. The 2nd round was pretty much a back-and-forth dogfight with evenly matched striking and grappling exchanges.
After a referee stand-up for a grappling stalemate, Elliott clipped Papazian and dropped him again in the 3rd, this time causing some visible damage in the form of a gushing broken nose.
Elliott pounced and pounded, first advancing to full mount and then taking Papazian’s back with both hooks in. Papazian showed good gameness by fighting out of the choke and standing back up, but Elliott powered him back down and closed out the fight throwing leather from back control.
In a surprisingly ballsy set of scores, the judges had it 30-25 twice and 30-26 for Tim Elliott, who defeats Jared Papazian by unanimous decision.
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