The 13th season of The Ultimate Fighter came to a violent end Saturday night as the much maligned Tony Ferguson won the title thanks to a series of strikes that left Ramsey Nijem dazed and confused in Las Vegas. The end came near the end of the opening frame which had been evenly matched throughout. After the two competitors exchanged punches they broke, Ferguson caught Nijem with a left that floored him and then one more shot to the jaw sealed the deal. The two had bad blood coming into the fight thanks to an incident that occurred in the second to last episode that saw Ferguson overcome with rage upon consuming too much alcohol. Nijem had taken the behavior personally and had openly said that he was bringing those emotions into the cage with him. Ferguson has now earned himself a multi-fight, six figure contract with the UFC.
In the co-main event, one that was sure to shuffle the top of the lightweight deck in one way or the other, Clay Guida, a 2-1 underdog, grinded his way to a unanimous decision victory over the last man to hold the WEC lightweight title Anthony Pettis. Pettis had originally been scheduled to fight the winner of the Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard fight from UFC 125 so that the two titles could be unified. But when that one went to a draw this fight was created so that Pettis would not have to sit out a year in the prime of his career. Now with Guida’s victory is seems as though the WEC title is dead and buried and the division will move forward without it. The 3rd round saw some thrilling moments as Pettis, clearly behind on the scorecards, staged a late comeback wherein he took Guida’s back and nearly earn a submission victory. It was not to be however, as Guida slid out the backdoor and went on to control the rest of the round just as he had dominated the first two. Guida is probably still a fight away from a title shot but he has clearly declared himself a major player at lightweight.
In other main card action Kyle Kingsbury squeezed out a close unanimous decision victory over Fabio Maldonado in the contest that was awarded Fight of the Night status. That distinction won both the participants an extra $40,000 for the evening. Ed Herman made his return after a 22 month layoff as he finished off Tim Credeur in short order using two quick uppercuts and then subsequent ground and pound to get the stoppage a mere 48 seconds in. And in the first fight televised live on Spike TV we saw a matchup of the semi-finalists who just missed out on a chance main event as Chris Cope took on Chuck O’Neil. Cope was in the driver’s seat for the duration as he easily won all three rounds and effectively got under Mike Goldberg’s skin with his non-stop “Woo”-ing.
