By MATT BOONE
MMANEWS.COM Staff Writer
Welcome to our live round-by-round coverage of the UFC 116 “Lesnar vs. Carwin”
Make sure to check out the action as it happens live here at MMANews.com on this page throughout the evening.
You can also visit the MMANews.com Forums for alternate UFC 116 coverage with ongoing discussion from other die-hard MMA fans.
PRELIMINARY FIGHTS:
-Kendall Grove def. Goran Reljic via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) after 3 Rounds.
-Gerald Harris def. David Branch via KO (slam) at 2:25 of Round 3.
-Daniel Roberts def. Forrest Petz via Split Decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) after 3 Rounds.
-Jon Madsen def. Karlos Vemola via Unanimous Decision after 3 Rounds.
LIVE TV PRELIM FIGHTS:
Fight #1:
-Seth Petruzelli vs. Ricardo Romero
Round 1: Petruzelli comes out aggressive. Within a minute he's got Romero in big trouble with punches against the cage. Romero survives but eats a high kick from Petruzelli. Petruzelli slipped on the kick but still got enough to momentarily hurt Romero. Half way through the round it seems as if Petruzelli is having slight gas issues already. The fight hits the floor with Petruzelli on top. Petruzelli conjured up a few ground-and-pound combo attacks that seemed to threaten Romero's chances of surviving the round. Romero gets top position on Petruzelli. Romero immediately goes for submissions. Petruzelli escapes back to his feet and drops Romero badly with a huge uppercut very late in the round. Romero was down and hurt, so Petruzelli followed in to finish. Within seconds, Romero somehow had Petruzelli's back and finished the round trying to secure a rear naked choke.
Round 2: Petruzelli still looks a tad tired as the second begins. Petruzelli hurts Romero early with a big knee strike from the standing position. He knocks Romero on the ground and follows in again, which again gave Romero a chance to gain control of the offense. Petruzelli dominated the early ground action this time though, catching Romero in a full armbar. It looked real close but eventually it was released. Romero is bleeding like a stuck pig the first time we see his face after the close armbar finish. It wasn't a minute later when Romero was on top and secured a kimura. Petruzelli tapped out quickly. Romero wins in a huge upset.
Ricardo Romero def. Seth Petruzelli via Submission (kimura) at 3:05 of Round 2.
Fight #2:
-Brendan Schaub vs. Chris Tuchscherer
Round 1: Tuchscherer shoots in for a takedown attempt early in the round, but Schaub defends nicely. Moments later, Schaub drops Tuchscherer with a huge overhand right. Schaub immediately follows in with vicious punches on the ground and the ref stops the fight. Schaub makes quick work of Tuchscherer.
Brendan Schaub def. Chris Tuchscherer via TKO (punches) at 1:07 of Round 3.
LIVE PPV FIGHTS:
Fight #3:
-George Sotiropoulos vs. Kurt Pellegrino
Round 1: And our UFC PPV is officially underway. George looks pretty comfortable on the feet early, stringing his punches together quite well thus far. George rocks Pellegrino big time and drops him. George follows in and tries to ground and pound him out. When that wasn't working, he switched to a sloppy (and rushed) rear naked choke attempt that failed. Back on the feet, George is landing a number of good shots. Pellegrino is getting out-classed in the stand-up so far in this round. Pellegrino gets a takedown but George immediately gets up before anything happens. Near the end of the round, Pellegrino again secured a takedown. Again he had no success once in top position on the ground. George is looking really impressive so far.
Round 2: George opens up the second round with a takedown of his own. Within seconds, George passes to Pellegrino's half guard. George is dominating Pellegrino on the ground this entire round. He's doing it in a way where it's not the most exciting round I've ever seen, but he's clearly in control. Pellegrino is eating a number of good elbows from George in this round. Pellegrino finally wall-walks with just a minute remaining. After a clinch battle against the cage, both men finally create some distance and the fight is finally back on the feet. George with a nice high kick which was partially blocked by Pellegrino. Round ends with George working in his hook, which has been one of his most utilized punches this fight on the feet. Pellegrino needs something huge in the third if he wants to pull this one out.
Round 3: First minute of the round was all on the feet. Literally next to nothing happened as both guys circled and pawed with jabs. Pellegrino lands a nice one-two combo, with the straight punch finding the mark nicely. George lands his big book and Pellegrino was on pretty wobbly legs. George noticed this and ran in to capitalize, but Pellegrino shot in for a desperation takedown, capitalizing on the careless forward motion of George. On the ground, George has a rubber guard locked in on Pellegrino, which is nullifying any offensive ideas Pellegrino may have on top. Both guys scramble to their feet. They spent most of the final moments of round three clinched against the cage. When they seperate, Pellegrino blasts George with a big knee and his best punch of the fight, completely dropping George. The horn sounded literally right as Pellegrino went to try and follow in for the stoppage. He may have stolen the round but he didn't steal the fight.
George Sotiropoulos def. Kurt Pellegrino via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) after 3 Rounds.
Fight #4:
-Stephan Bonnar vs. Krzysztof Soszynski
Round 1: Both guys come out swinging wildly. Both guys landed some good shots in that exchange. Soszynski is focusing more on leg kicks than anything else, using the kicks down low to set up everything up high – punches, knees, etc. Bonnar seems to be throwing in an elbow here or there in close range. Other than that, lots of rock'm, sock'm robot spots in this round. Bonnar was hurt near the end of the round.
Round 2: This round opens much of the same. If you blink, you legitimately risk the chance of missing a good strike of some kind. Early in the round, Soszynski had Bonnar hurt and it seemed to be a fight ending flurry. Moments later, Bonnar gets in his zone, or Soszynski was too tired to keep punching back like he had been. Bonnar hurt him good in the flurry and backed off to catch his own breath. It wasn't long after that when Bonnar had Soszynski against the cage and he blasted him with a big knee to the face. Soszynski went down, turtled up, and Bonnar proceeded to pound on him for maybe a full minute before the ref finally jumped in and stopped the fight.
Stephan Bonnar def. Krzysztof Soszynski via TKO (strikes) at 3:08 of Round 2.
Note: Due to technical difficulties, our live play-by-play coverage ended at this point. Below are results for the rest of the UFC 116 card:
-Chris Lytle def. Matt Brown via Submission (reverse triangle) at 2:02 of Round 2.
-Chris Leben def. Yoshihiro Akiyama via Submission (triangle choke) at 4:40 of Round 3.
-Brock Lesnar def. Shane Carwin via Submission (arm triangle) at 2:19 of Round 2.