Rafeal dos Anjos became the new UFC Lightweight Champion of the world on Saturday night with a shocking fight round masterpiece over champion Anthony Pettis.
Rafeal dos Anjos put on a five round clinic as he dominated Anthony Pettis both on the feet and on the mat. It was clear within the first few minutes of the fight that Pettis would be in for a very long night. Rafeal dos Anjos took all five rounds and all threejudges scorecards.
He also his Pettis so hard and so often, that only a minute into the fight, Pettis’s eye was already swollen shut.
Rafeal dos Anjos is now the champion of the most stacked weight class in MMA, he will have a long list of challengers waiting for him.
The UFC women’s Strawweight championship also changed hands as challenger Joanna Jędrzejczyk only needed two rounds to quickly and easily dispose of champion Carla Esparza with a vicious TKO victory.
As this sportswriter predicted, the speed and strong hands of Jedrejczyk were far too much for Carla to handle. In what was supposed to be a slugfest, but turned into a three round clunker, it was Johnny Hendricks beating Matt Brown by decision.
Neither man took many chances as Hendricks took Brown down each round and slowed down the fight drastically.
It wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t fun to watch, but Hendricks picked up the 30 – 27 decision victory on all three judges’ cards. The win puts Hendricks back in line for a rematch with Robbie Lawler for the UFC Welterweight Title. It would be the rubber match between the two.
Lawler still has to defend against Rory MacDonald in the meantime.
Alistair Overeem looked impressive in a action packed three round decision victory of Roy Nelson. Overeem, as predicted, used a variety of leg kicks and hard strikes throughout the entire fight to keep the hovering Nelson at bay.
After the win, Overeem called out current champion Cain Velasquez for a possible title match in the near future. However, Velasquez already is set to face Fabricio Werdumn in a unification bout this summer. It was a great card, filled with action and worth every penny of the $44.49 spent on it.
Until next time fight fans! No Blood : No Foul