The main event of the evening at the KFC Yum center Thursday night on UFC Versus featured the hard hitting, mean mugging Diego Sanchez vs Muay Thai expert Martin Kampmann.
The first round got off to a bang with Kampmann landing straight punches and technical strikes that immediately cut and bruised Sanchez face. Kampmann also scored a knockdown and a solid knee to the face of Diego. Sanchez seemed to have a game plan of trying to take down his opponent for some ground and pound but he could not take Kampmann off his feet in the first round despite numerous take down attempts for Sanchez. I scored the first round for Kampmann with his technical display of striking and takedown defense.
Round 2 started off similar to the first with Kampmann landing the cleaner strikes and Sanchez still trying to get the takedown but with no success. Sanchez did not give up though and started throwing wild looping hooks and uppercuts in 5 and 6 burst flurries while continuing to move forward as the aggressor. Diego Sanchez has shown a willingness in the past to take 3 sometimes 4 punches to land one good power shot and he didn’t disappoint tonight. With his eye cut up, bleeding and swollen Sanchez kept throwing haymakers and wobbled kampman twice in the second round. I was impressed with Martin Kampmann’s takedown defense as he stuffed more of Diego’s takedown attempts in that second round.This round was very close and could have gone either way, I scored it “very narrowly” for Sanchez as he landed the more powerful strikes that had visible effect on his opponent.
Round 3 had Sanchez chasing Kampann like a wild man swinging bunches of strikes that landed sparadically but were none the less effective. Kampman was bleeding from a cut eye now and also from the mouth and nose. Kampman also landed numerous well placed shots to Diego’s head that had Sanchez bleeding profusely. Sanchez finally got a takedown late in the third round but Kampmann got back up faily quickly without taking much damage on the ground. Kampann appeared to break his right hand in the third round when he nailed Sanchez in the eye and opened up another huge gash on Diego. This was another tough round to score but I had Diego winning the third with his aggression, power strikes and takedown.
This was an entertaining slugfest that clearly was a winner for the fans and the fighters alike. UFC president Dana White enjoyed the fight so much he gave both fighters a fight of the night bonus of $60,000 and also an additional $100,000 bonus each. It is clear that the UFC wants crowd pleasing fights and are willing to pay fighters more for this, then to fighters who are just out to get a victory but fight a boring fight. This match had all the makings of a great fight and did not disappoint.
In an earlier middleweight bout Mark Munoz “the phillipino wrecking machine” vs C.B. Dollaway had Munoz needing just 54 seconds to end the night of Dollaway in a stunning fashion. Munoz connected with a huge right hand that rocked Dollaway. Munoz followed up with shots that knocked Dollaway to the ground, Munoz quickly got on top and landed some big hammerfists that had Dollaway in a dream state. Referee Mario Yamasaki correctly seen the trouble Dalloway was in and stopped it although the crowd seemed displeased about the stoppage. Munoz improved his record to 10-2 and seems to improve with each new test he faces.
written by:Choke Slam
Choke Slam lives in Victoria B.C. Canada and can be reached at info@ufcfightpicks.comMy website can be viewed at http://www.ufcfightpicks.com
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