UFC 141 Results

UFC 141 took place on December 30th, 2011 on a Friday which is different for the UFC because their pay per view events typically occur on Saturday nights, but they didn't want to interfere with the New Years.

This pay per view was classified as a co-main event with the premier fight billed being Brock Lesnar vs. Alistair Overeem in a battle for the #1 contender spot for the heavyweight title. The second main event is Nate Diaz vs. Donald Cerrone being a heated matchup between 155 pounders.

The first fight of the evening could be seen streamed live on Facebook through the official UFC page.

Manny Gamburyan fought Diego Nunes in a three round match that ultimately showed exactly how boxing-centered Manny is and how Diego Nunes is more of an all-around fighter that including multiple kicks from the shins to the upper shoulder. Gamburyan had a few good right hands and a quick takedown, but couldn't seem to break into the inner circle to land better shots on Nunes.

Diego Nunez ultimately won by a unanimous decision after all three rounds.

Next fight of the night was between former Ultimate Fighter winner Efrain Escudero who trains under Dan Henderson and Jakob "Christmas" Volkmann who works under Sean Sherk. The fight started with Efrain sinking in a nice looking guillotine choke that Jakob quickly rolled out of. After that, the first round consisted of Volkmann on top of Escudero who was in half guard the majority of the time.

The second round was only on the mat and showed the grappling technique that Jakob Volkmann represents when he dominates even wrestlers like Efrain Escudero by taking their back and looking for submissions. Within thirty seconds of the beginning of the third round, you've guessed it by now...Escudero was on his back. WIth 1:15 left in the round and everything looking bleak for Efrain, he sinks in a north south guillotine choke that he lost hold of with :10 seconds to go that nearly finished off "Christmas."

Jakob got the unanimous decision at the end of the day.

Third fight of the featured two welterweights who have something to prove. Sean Pierson and Dong Hyun Kim were set to battle with Kim having won 8 of his last 10 fights by way of knockout and Pierson winning a brawl in his last competition. First round contained kicks from Kim and a strong Judo throw executed at the end of the round that Pierson quickly rolled over and seemed unphased.

The second round was very slow with the fighters seeming to still feel each other out until Kim landed an amazing jumping front kick that damaged Pierson enough to make him extremely wobbly as he was saved by the end of the round bell soon after. Sean Pierson then walked stunned towards the wrong part of the octagon at first, but decided to continue. Pierson overall fought with too slow and sluggish of an attitude where he could escape the grappling Dong Hyun forced onto him, but couldn't seem to push the pace himself.

Dong Hyun Kim won by unanimous decision after the third round concluded.

Jimy Hettes came into this fight holding an undefeated recond of (9-0) while across the octagon was Nam Phan who was formerly of the show Ultimate Fighter and is actually coming off of a Fight of the Night recognition in his last pay per view fight for the UFC.

After two minutes into the first round, the fight was looking impossible for Nam Phan as Jimy Hettes began the fight with Nam in a single arm guillotine choke and then tons of ground and pound to follow as he forced his presence on Phan. "The Kid" nearly scores an armbar and then a TKO by punches at the end of round 1 before the horn sounded.

The second round moved steadily through as Hettes came out of appearing winded by the veteran Nam Phan began to look confident that he could make a comeback.

But it was not to be as Hettes continued the battering and through the third round kept back control of Phan after taking him down and then ground and pounding him further towards the end of the round.

Jimy Hettes wins by unanimous decision.

Alexander "The Mauler" Gustafsson knocks out Vladimir "The Janitor" Matyushenko midway through the first round after some feeling out time, but quickly Vladiminir ran into a straight jab thrown by Alexander. This was the first stoppage of the evening and was very impressive by the much younger competitor.

Gustaffson wins by TKO in the first round.

Jon Fitch had an impressive record of (12-1-1) going into this fight with his only being suffered to perhaps the greatest welterweight to ever fight in the UFC, George St. Pierre while Hendricks is quickly moving up in the rankings and is a relatively newer face to the octagon. Fitch isn't known for finishing fights and often takes them the distance which some say is also his weakness and that perhaps he isn't aggressive enough.

John Hendricks took immediate advantage of that flaw and knocked out Jon Fitch within 15 seconds of the first round with a massive right hand followed up by a right hand once Fitch had hit the mat and the referee stopped the fight with a TKO win for "Bigg Rigg" Hendricks.

The next fight would be that of Nate Diaz versus Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone which was the secondary main event. This matchup was set to be a brawl after the initial weigh-in press conference where Diaz knocked off Cerrone's hat and displayed his always aggressive attitude.

The pace was set very early and very quickly from the start of the match with both fighters trading blows. Nate seemed to be throwing a little more wildly from his awkward style while Cerrone took his time trying to be more technical and took more shots as a result of not using a proper defense of movement and keeping his head out of the way of direct jabs. After four minutes into the first round, "Cowboy" had his jaw wide open appearing to have an injured jaw because he didn't seem winded in any way.

The second round seemed to put a small spark into Donald Cerrone as he soon began working more of the leg kicks and quick knees, but still allowed too many punches by a Nate Diaz who was as accurate with his shots as he has ever been. Neither fighter wanted to take this fight to go to the ground as each competitor had slipped or knocked the other down with leg sweeps and simply stood away as the other would get back up simulating a mock kick boxing match.

The final round started with Nate Diaz giving Cerrone a single finger salute like "Cowboy" had given him at the start of the match when each fighter is to touch gloves. Diaz began to show boat by leaning his forward in and purposely dropping his hands to his sides as to coax Donald in looking for perhaps a knockout, but Cerrone held his feelings back and continued to try his technical style. Perhaps if he had taken advantage of Diaz and jumped on top of him to attempt some ground and pound, the fight might have turned out differently if he could've avoid Nate's notorious submissions.

Nate Diaz turned into a truly impressive performance and won the unanimous decision after all three rounds.

The main event of the evening was set for a heavyweight matchup between Brock Lesnar against Alistair "The Reem" Overeem who was making his UFC debut. Overeem is considered the most experienced in kick boxing that is now in the UFC heavyweight division and is a former K1 and longtime Strikeforce champion. Lesnar is considered to be one of the "baddest men on the planet" with impressive victories in his few fights in the UFC over Heath Herring and Randy Couture. The winner of this match would get a shot at the heavyweight title now held by Junior Dos Santos.

Overeem threw vicious knees to the body of Brock between the first and second minutes of the match causing apparent fatigue rather immediately and loud sounds throughout the arena. A kick to the body that caught Lesnar with 2:42 left in the first round led to a TKO victory for Alistair Overeem as Brock fell to his knees and "The Reem" pummeled him repeatedly with blows to the head. Brock Lesnar simply did not push the pace hard enough and didn't attempt to take Overeem to the ground enough. With his better wrestling career and experience, he should've utilized that and worked harder towards a takedown.

Brock Lesnar in the closing interview announced his retirement from the UFC after his loss per request from his wife and children and for his own health which has been hectic over the last year or so.