Saturday night ended up in disappointment for both Minnesota fighters at UFC 106 in Las Vegas.
In the third fight of the show, Brainerd's Brock Larson fell in defeat to Oklahoma's Brian Foster in the second round when he was forced to tap out to a series of hard strikes.
From the start of the fight, the usually explosive Larson allowed Foster to set the pace of the fight, and was more tentative than usual.
By the end of the first round, Larson's chances to win the fight were in serious trouble, after he had two points deducted for what were unintentional fouls. The first foul occurred when Larson was on his back and he kicked up at Foster, who was on his knees at Larson's feet. The kick ended up hitting Foster in the head, which made it an illegal blow for kicking an opponent who was on the mat in the head.
The second foul happened about a minute later when Larson had Foster in a front facelock. Foster was aware enough to put his hand on the mat, which, by the rules, gave him three points of contact with the canvas, making it illegal to strike him in the head once again.
Larson could not see the hand on the mat, and hit Foster with a knee. Without the hand down it would be a legal blow, but with his hand on the mat, the ref was forced to stop the bout again, and take a second point away from Larson. That put Larson in a bad positions, because it meant that it would be near impossible for him to come back and win a decision, already down two points in a three round fight.
It didn't matter though, as Larson got caught with an uppercut as he tried to take Foster down about three minutes into the second round. Foster quickly jumped on Larson and landed a handful of shots before Larson tapped out.
The other Minnesotan on the card, White Bear Lake's Jacob Volkmann, went the distance with his opponent, losing a three round decision to Brazil's Paulo Thiago.
Volkmann was competitive in his fight with the Brazilian, but his standup showed serious flaws and needs a lot of work if he wants to compete in the UFC. Thiago floored him twice with punches, once at the bell at the end of the first round, and again in the third round. Volkmann was able to quickly recover both times. He also showed good submission defense when Thiago was trying to finish the fight. They were pretty even in grappling ability, which looked on paper to be Volkmann's strong suit.
Two judges scored the fight 30-27 for Thiago and one scored it 29-28.
After the event, there was no word when either man might appear back in the Octagon. I think Volkmann will get a second shot since he went the distance, though Larson's future is more up in the air since this was his second loss in a row.
NOTES:
Nothing new on Brock Lesnar's health from the weekend. Some reports were floating around the internet that he might be back as soon as six months, but there is no confirmation of that. There is an entertaining youtube video hyping his return, which was posted by the people who do his training camp videos, which you can find here.
If you are looking for some local MMA action, there is an event on Wednesday night at the St Paul National Guard Armory (600 Cedar Ave) right by the State Capitol. The event will feature the semi-finals of two ongoing tournaments, a heavyweight tournament and a lightweight tournament. The show is presented by Brutaal MMA and promoter Nick Gamst. The doors open at 6:30, fights start at 7:30. For tickets you can call 612-382-9717, the promotions website is http://abrutalnation.com. The full card is:
HW Semi: Kevin Asplund vs. Cameron Befort
HW Semi: Heath Roth vs. Josh Henry
LW Semi: Derrick Getzel vs. Dustan Petron
LW Semi: John Case vs. Brandon Bergeron
Also:
(155 LBS) Courtney Buck vs. Cody Pasquale
( 170 LBS) Robert Dawson vs. Chris Dierdahl
(HWT) Blaine Handerson vs. Jeremy Beck
