UFC Fight Night 17 Results & Recap

Pro Fighting Fans' staff writer Nick Russell, the author of our UFC Fight Night 17 preview, recaps the event from Saturday night, February 7th.

Anthony Johnson vs Luigi Fioravanti

In the first Spike TV televised bout of the evening, Anthony “Rumble” Johnson showed viewers why he is so highly regarded as one of the UFC fastest rising stars. The 24 year old Johnson dominated from the opening bell to secure a first round TKO victory over Luigi Fioravanti.

Fioravanti who is coming off a streak of victories in three of his last four fights found himself at a disadvantage for almost the entire fight. In the first two minutes both Johnson and Fioravanti danced around the cage trying to figure out the strategy of their opponent. Fioravanti tried to make up for the 8 inch reach disadvantage by ducking under a few of “Rumble’s” jabs. When Johnson recognized that he began his assault with several crisp inside leg kicks into Fioravanti’s thigh. Luigi then began to move around the cage with no plan trying to pick his spots with his wild overhand punch attempts. As expected Johnson avoided all attempts including a takedown attempt at the 2 minute mark. By stuffing Fioravanti’s takedown attempt the two fighters found themselves in a clinch. Each fighter tried to gain an advantage with heel stomps and some short knee strikes. One of Fioravanti’s knees did catch Rumble and landed illegally in the groin.

Referee Troy Waugh stopped the match and gave Johnson a few moments to catch his breath and recover from the illegal strike. Soon after the strike Johnson came out moving forward and caught Fioravanti with an overhand right that put him to a knee. Fioravanti quickly got up but was visibly dazed by the strike. Johnson immediately flew back into his opponent and landed several knees and overhand punches which put Fioravanti back to the mat on his back. Fioravanti moved and gave up his back and that is all that Johnson needed. Rumble began to strike Luigi with continuous hammer fists that made the referee call the bout at the 4:39 mark in the first round.

The loss dropped Fioravanti’s record to 14-5 and temporarily stopped his path to contention for the title. The win improved Johnson’s record to 7-2 and gives him a 2 fight win streak in the UFC.

While many believe that was Johnson’s best performance to date he was not happy with his performance. He mentioned to Joe Rogan in the post fight interview that he was not happy with the way he came out to fight. It was apparent that his striking has improved and he did give credit to his camp with training partners Cung Le and Josh Thompson, both Strikeforce champs. If he had any doubters before the fight they are gone by now. Rumble Johnson is on the fast track to a significant fight in the very near future.

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Mac Danzig vs Josh Neer

Lightweights Mac Danzig and Josh Neer both needed this fight to get back on track after losing their previous fights. With that in mind, many predicted that this lightweight bout had the potential to have fireworks. It didn’t disappoint. It was a very entertaining fight with heavy punches, takedowns, and submission attempts. The back and forth battle lived up to its predictions with Josh Neer defeating The Ultimate Fighter 6 winner Mac Danzig with a 2nd round submission (triangle choke) victory. Danzig didn’t go home empty handed though as he and Neer both pocketed $30,000 for Fight of the Night honors.

Neer began the fight in an unorthodox style by waving his right hand and trying to distract Danzig. While the waving did little to distract his opponent his heavy punches did. Both fighters looked good early on trading strikes. Danzig landed a couple of head kicks then Neer began to push the pace and landed some body punches and overhand rights to the head. The fight continued at a rapid pace until Xtreme Couture fighter, Danzig dropped “The Dentist” with a solid overhand right. Although he did put Neer to the ground he could not finish him. Neer fought back effectively enough to put a submission attempt on Danzig with a little less than 1:00 left in the first round. Danzig was able to escape and get back to his feet. As the fighters began to trade back on their feet both fighters began to showboat a little and the crowd was all over it and showed their approval as the time ran out in the first round.

The second round began much like the first with a quick pace. Shortly into the first Neer found himself on top of Danzig and landed several elbows to the face of Danzig. Danzig didn’t panic and even escaped to reverse position and found himself on top of a confident Neer. However, with Danzig in The Dentist’ guard he did not do the same amount of damage as his opponent. Danzig began to tire of throwing punches from the top and Neer saw his opportunity. Neer was able to grab Danzig’s arm and lock in a triangle choke. Danzig, now in a panic state tried to turn but only made the submission tighter. At the 3:36 point in the second Danzig realized it was time to tap before suffering a serious injury.

The official decision was Neer over Danzig via triangle choke at 3:36 of the second round. The win gives Josh Neer some more confidence as he begins the long journey to the top of the lightweight division. This is the third stint that Neer has fought in the UFC and it just may be his charm. Since returning for the third time he has won 2 of his last 3 in the UFC. Danzig has now lost 2 UFC fights in a row and must start again from the bottom of a heavily stacked division.

Denis Stojnic vs Cain Velasquez

Many believed that if Denis Stojnic was to have any chance at defeating the UFC’s best heavyweight prospect he would have to do it early in the first round. After giving it his best shot Stojnic could not complete the task and fell to the heavily favored American Kickboxing Academy student Cain Velasquez.

The first round saw Denis “The Menace” Stojnic counter Velasquez’s strikes with some heavy but very wild punches. Many of Stojnic’s punches hit nothing but air and the ones that did reach Velasquez’ body did very little damage. After a few exchanges from the fighters landed Stojnic in Velasquez arms Stojnic spent a great deal of energy trying to get away from the clinch of Velasquez. Velasquez then failed in a couple of takedown attempts and eventually separated from the 246lb Bosnia native. With his back to the fence almost the entire first round Stojnic continued to swing wildly but with little success. Velasquez however found himself connecting on anything and everything that he threw at Stojnic. Stojnic somehow managed to compose himself enough to finish the first round, which was a feat in itself.

Finding himself in unfamiliar territory did little to faze Velasquez as the second round was much of the same as the first. A very tired Denis Stojnic, needing to rest, jumped to the ground and half heartedly attempted to put a guillotine choke on Velasquez. Velasquez quickly shrugged the attempt off and found himself on top of Stojnic. Velasquez delivered unanswered blow after blow to the head and body of Stojnic who did little to defend himself. The referee finally intervened and called the fight due to Stojnic taking too much time to protect himself.

Although it was another victory for Velasquez and his third in a row in the UFC he looked very dissatisfied after the victory. The UFC was satisfied enough to award Velasquez the Knockout the Night award and a bonus of $30,000. Stojnic’s UFC future is very much in question but Velasquez, however will continue his way up the heavyweight ladder and probably face a top level opponent in his next fight.

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UFN 17 Main Event: Joe Lauzon vs Jeremy Stephens

Many UFC fans did not associate Joe Lauzon with main event status before UFC Fight Night 17. I think that after his performance against Jeremy Stephens he proved that he is worthy of that title. Stephens proved to be a game opponent but found himself in the wrong position at the wrong time and J-Lau capitalized.

The first round bell sounded and it was obvious what Lauzon wanted to do. J-Lau immediately dropped to the ground after a couple of strikes from “Lil Heathen” Stephens grazed his body. Stephens was able to get back to his feet only to be taken to the mat for the second time shortly after. The second time to the canvas also brought submission attempt number one from J-Lau. Lauzon attempted a leg lock but failed and transitioned to side control on Stephens. After delivering a couple elbows to the face of Stephens, Lauzon attempted the second submission with an arm bar. Stephens shrugged it off and got back on top. Now on top, Stephens swung hard and heavy making Lauzon look somewhat uncomfortable. Lauzon avoided enough of the strikes to get back to his feet only to be slammed to the mat by Stephens once again. Stephens finished the first round by peppering punches from Lauzon’s guard.

Second round continued with both fighters striking back and forth with combinations. Lauzon eventually took Stephens to the ground and transitioned to side control once again. Once in side control, Lauzon connected with elbows to Stephens’ body. He then attempted to get the back of Stephens at the 2:00 mark. Stephens showed great defense again by reversing and getting back on top. Stephens did very little from the top and at this point the match took a devastating turn for “Lil Heathen”. Lauzon kicked Stephens off his body and reversed positions again. Soon after reversing he mounted Stephens and locked in the arm bar. This attempt Stephens was not able to get out of making him tap late in the second round.

Lauzon is back on another 2 fight win streak in the UFC with this win over Stephens. Stephens, also very impressive, finds himself back in the middle of a crowded lightweight division with the loss. Lauzon also earned Submission of the Night honors with the impressive arm bar. Lauzon is now creeping back towards the top of the division yet again, validating his main event status along the way.

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Other UFC Fight Night 17 results:

• Kurt Pellegrino defeats Rob Emerson via submission (rear naked choke) in Round 2
• Dan Miller defeats Jake Rosholt via submission (guillotine choke) in Round 1
• Matt Veach defeats Matt Grice via technical knockout (strikes) in Round 1
• Gleison Tibau defeats Rich Clementi via submission (guillotine choke) in Round 1
• Nick Catone defeats Derek Downey via submission (keylock) in Round 2
• Matt Riddle defeats Steve Bruno via unanimous decision

By Nick Russell
ProFighting-fans.com Staff Writer