Hatsu Hioki couldn’t help but bring some drama to his fight with Ivan Menjivar to open the UFC TUF: China Finale card. While Hioki dominated the first round — actually, most of the action from bell to bell — he took a massive shot in the third round that hurt him and opened up a nasty cut. Hioki had done plenty with his slick grappling game, however. So when the final bell rang he was the one with his hand raised, all three judges scoring the bout 29-28.
Matt Mitrione and Shawn Jordan were up next, representing the heavyweights. It was a slow affair for most of the first round, both men throwing some heavy hands but not connecting much. Shortly after the ten second warning Mitrione stunned Jordan against the cage and followed up with a heavy barrage of punches that slumped Jordan against the cage just a brief moment before the horn sounded to end the round. Mitrione picked up the much needed win after being only 1-3 in his last four fights.
Sai Wang and Lipeng Zhang met in the TUF: China finale, a very bad fight between two guys who clearly do not seem to be “UFC caliber.” Sai appeared to have earned the victory, doing more than Lipeng. The judges failed to see it that way, awarding Lipeng the split decision: 29-28, 27-30, 29-28. The less said about this one, the better. I am curious what the UFC could possibly do with the TUF: China cast, however.