| UFC 67 Results |
Cro Cop, Jackson win in UFC debuts Saturday night in UFC 67: All or Nothing
coourtesy of canada.com
February 4, 2007 - 9:27 pm By: NEIL DAVIDSON
LAS VEGAS (CP) - As expected, Croatian heavyweight Mirko (Cro Cop) Filipovic and light-heavyweight Quinton (Rampage) Jackson opened their UFC accounts with wins Saturday night at UFC 67: All or Nothing.
Filipovic, who is a member of Croatia’s parliament as well as a mixed martial arts star, knocked out Eddie Sanchez while Jackson stopped veteran Marvin (Beastman) Eastman.
Both Filipovic and Jackson have starred in other MMA circuits but were lured away by lucrative UFC contracts. The UFC expects both to help create big-money title fights in the near future.
Middleweight champion Anderson Silva thumped Travis Lutter in the main event, a fight deemed non-title and not that important in the scheme of things after Lutter failed to make the 185-pound weight limit.
The hard-hitting Brazilian gave the jiu-jitsu ace some of his own medicine, locking him in a triangle choke while on his back and then hammering away at his shaved head with elbows and punches. Referee Herb Dean stopped it at 2:11 of the second round, after Lutter tapped out.
"I’m a standup fighter but my jiu-jitsu can match up with anyone in this weight class," Silva said through an interpreter.
Lutter (12-4) managed to take Silva (18-4) down a couple of times earlier but the Brazilian kept escaping.
Filipovic, a 10-1 favourite, stalked his raw opponent around the ring, with the occasional leg kicks cracking through the air.
Sanchez eventually toppled near the edge of the cage after a left kick to the top of his head and punch to the face. The Croatian (22-4-2) then mounted Sanchez, punching away until the referee stopped it at 4:33 of the first round.
Sanchez, 8-0 going into the fight, showed little other than the ability to throw wild punches and back-pedal.
Filipovic, former member of Croatia’s elite anti-terrorism police unit (hence the nickname Cro Cop for Croatian Cop) looked frustrated at Sanchez’s backtracking. But the 24-year-old from California, with the unlikely nickname The Manic Hispanic, did throw a few punches while trying to escape a pummelling.
Earlier, Canadian middleweight Patrick (The Predator) Cote scored a workmanlike win over Scott (Hands of Steel) Smith, his first in the UFC.
The card was not without its problems. Canadian Georges St. Pierre was forced to pull out of his welterweight title defence against Matt (The Terror) Serra after injuring his knee training. Then the other co-main event, between Silva and Lutter, was turned into just another fight.
The crowd booed as the Lutter weight announcement was made early in the card. Lutter apologized in a video interview prior to the fight. St. Pierre was on hand, but only to work the corner of close friend Cote.
Lutter and Serra earned title shots by winning their divisions in Season 4 of The Ultimate Fighter reality TV show. Lutter defeated Cote in the final of the show.
The non-title status of the main event further shifted the spotlight squarely on Filipovic and Jackson, who were profiled ahead of the Silva-Lutter main event in the UFC’s taped introduction to the pay-per-view portion of the evening.
Jackson entered the ring, baying like a wolf, with his trademark rumble chain around his neck.
Eastman, a former UNLV football player built like a fire hydrant, stood his ground until a series of hard uppercuts drove him to the ground in the second round. Jackson won by KO at 3:49 of the round. avenging an earlier loss to Eastman.
Never at a loss for words, Jackson said after the fight that he loved Eastman but Saturday night was "time for black-on-black crime."
The fickle crowd at the Mandalay Bay Events Center booed during portions of the fight, which Jackson said was a first for him. He also said he had never been as nervous going into a fight, promising to be sharper next time out.
In truth, the 37-year-old Eastman was a perfect opponent for Jackson - easy to find and with limited firepower.
Cote’s unanimous decision was greeted by boos from the crowd, unimpressed by the fight.
The 26-year-old from Quebec City badly needed a win. He was 0-4 in the UFC coming into the Smith fight, although had put up a good showing in three of the four losses.
"My first big win in the UFC, finally," Cote said in the ring after the fight.
Cote (10-4) looked cool before the bell rang, calmly leaning against the cage as he waited for the fight to begin. Cote upgraded his kickboxing skills in training prior to this fight and came out kicking, using low kicks to hurt his opponent.
Cote staggered Smith (12-3) with a right in the second and third but the American survived. And Smith, who had looked sluggish early on, hurt Cote late in the third with a flurry.
The crowd didn’t like what it saw, keeping up a steady stream of boos that were largely undeserved.
Smith made his name in November with a remarkable knockout of Pete Sell. Smith crumpled after a punishing body shot, and as Sell moved in to finish him off, a doubled-over Smith tagged Sell with a right to the chin to win.
In a scary-short bout destined to become part of a highlight reel, middleweight Terry Martin stopped veteran Jorge Rivera in just 14 seconds. El Conquistador tried a high kick, only to have Martin catch his leg under his armpit. Martin then dropped Rivera with a right to the temple and thumped him in the face three more times for good measure before referee Dean intervened.
A dazed Rivera was in dreamland, hanging onto Dean as Martin celebrated.
In another lightning-fast ugly finish, lightweight Roger Huerta appeared to use a knee to the head to subdue John Halverson and then hit the face-down fighter some 15 more times before the referee put a halt to the carnage at just 19 seconds. Huerta later said he kneed him in the shoulder rather than the head, which is illegal when an opponent is on his knees.
Earlier, Brazilian light-heavyweight Lyoto Machida, in his UFC debut, outclassed Sam (The Alaskan Assassin) Hoger to win by unanimous decision. And Frank Edgar defeated Tyson Griffin by decision in all-an action matchup of unbeaten lightweights.
In other undercard action, lightweight Dustin Hazelett defeated Diego Saraiva by unanimous decision.
| " | "I'm a standup fighter but my jiu-jitsu can match up with anyone in this weight class," Silva said through an interpreter. |
