It’s fair to question if a card like we got with UFC Fight Night: Rockhold vs. Bisping is a “good card” with very little by way of ranked fighters meeting in the cage. But, you can’t question if the prelims were “fun.” Fighters were pullingoff brilliant knockouts and submissions from top to bottom.
Jake Matthews picked up a nice technical submission win in the “featured prelim bout” slot, stopping Vagner Rocha with a rear naked choke. Matthews looked impressive and had the home crowd advantage throughout.
Anthony Perosh continues to plug along as a professional mixed martial artist in his 40’s, choking out Guto Inocente to pick up the victory. Perosh got a body lock takedown and passes guard, took mount, took the back and finished with relative ease.
Dylan Andrews made one mistake and it was enough to allow Sam Alvey to get the finish. Andrews went for a throw and when he didn’t complete it, Alvey landed on his head. Alvey then turned and threw a flurry of massive punches that left Andrews down and out.
Following knocking out the hometown boy, Alvey gave one of the most relentlessly positive post-fight interviews that ended with the fans who were against him (at one point in the fight shouting “kick him in the balls”), cheering wildly.
Louis Smolka was not doing well for the first two rounds of his bout with Richie Vaculik. Vaculik was doing a good job of scoring with big strikes and keeping Smolka from really getting any sustained offense going.
But then, Smolka landed a kick that is a lock for knockout of the year discussions as he landed a “step in side kick,” or what people familiar with pro wrestling might call a “superkick” or a Shawn Michaels style “Sweet Chin Music.” That kick dropped Vaculik and some follow up shots from Smolka got the finish. It was a great comeback by Smolka, whom most seemed to have down 20-18 heading into round three, and a memorable kick to set up the finish.
Chris Clements found himself on his back in the first round against Vik Grujic. He was able to survive the scare by spinning out of Grujic’s grasp and once it was back to the feet he began bombing away with heavy strikes.
Eventually, clinching against the cage, Clements landed a knee to Grujic’s head that hurt him and Clements followed up with a huge flurry of strikes that had Grujic covering up and nothing more. Finally, Clements landed clean and Grujic dropped to the floor, awarding Clements the first round TKO win.
Dan Kelly was able to overcome a competitive first round against Luke Zachrich to pick up a win in his UFC debut. Zachrich tried to counter Kelly’s pressuring style on the feet by looking to set up and land a few sharp left hands but Kelly pressed and pressed until he caught and hurt Zachrich.
Once Zachrich was hurt, it was easy for the judoka to take him to the mat and work for a pass and a kimura to finish the fight.
Marcus Brimage started off the card with a body kick followed by a head kick that knocked Jumabieke Tuerxun out cold.