UFC on Fuel TV 3 Korean Zombie vs Poirier Poster

UFC on Fuel TV 3 took place on Tuesday, May 15th from the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Virginia. Six fights streamed on facebook and six fights were shown on Versus. Nearly every fight was exciting from start to finish on the main card, and the main event featured a fight of the year candidate.

Chan Sung Jung submits Dustin Poirier
Is it possible for Chan Sung Jung to not be in an exciting fight? The reason he has the nickname the “Korean Zombie” is due to the amount of punishment he can take and the fact that he keeps coming forward. Dustin Poirier was able to dish out his attacks, but in the end it wasn’t enough.

The first round both fighters decided to take the other down, but it was Jung who was able to score several elbows to the forehead of Poirier. The elbows were damaging, in that they cut Poirier up and blood started to trickle down his face.

The second round Jung again worked on top of Poirier after a takedown. Jung landed elbow after elbow and had a great punch as he faked an ankle throw and instead threw a punch. He nearly missed with a spinning backfist, but then transitioned it to a flying knee and uppercuts. The crowd went wild as Jung got the mount, but it was a high mount and he struggled to land damaging blows. Poirier tried to escape, but Jung again countered with submissions. He transitioned from a triangle to armbar back to triangle and then again to armbar. Poirier escaped and was on top but Jung finished the round with a very tight triangle.

The third round Jung started to slow down. Poirier was able to turn the fight into a more technical standup fight for the first half. Jung went for a takedown, got it, and landed several punches before Poirier was able to stand up. Jung landed a big knee, and both fighters looked like they were starting to gas. As the round was ending, Poirier was looking more like a zombie as Jung was landing punches and knees but kept coming forward and throwing with bad intention.

The fourth round was a first for both fighters as neither had been in what is dubbed the championship rounds. Jung landed a flying knee and Poirier shot for a takedown immediately. Jung defended and used his defense to secure a D’Arce choke. Poirier was in a lot of trouble and tapped just before being choked out.

Amir Sadollah edges out Jorge Lopez
In what was a battle of two very evenly matched fighters, Amir Sadollah edged out Jorge Lopez with a split decision. Sadollah started out slow, allowing Lopez to land leg kicks. Lopez decided to not trade with Sadollah and instead wanted to get the fight to the ground. After a failed takedown attempt, Lopez switched for a slightly different single leg and was able to elevate Sadollah. Once on the ground, a big elbow from Lopez landed before Sadollah was able to get up.

Lopez tried to take Sadollah down again in the second, wanting to capitalize on what worked well for him in the first round. Sadollah defended well, forcing Lopez to give up his neck. Sadollah recognized it and nearly finished the fight with a standing guillotine. As he transitioned to sink the choke in deeper, Lopez used a beautiful transition to escape from the submission. After the failed attempt, Sadollah was able to land kicks, and did enough to earn the round.

The third round, Lopez seemed to be the aggressor, landing punches and working for a takedown. But after spending most of his energy to get a takedown, Sadollah was able to land what he wanted to. As the ref stood the two up due to a lack of action, Sadollah was clearly the fresher fighter as Lopez was sluggish to rise to his feet. Sadollah capitalized and landed a flying knee and worked to get Lopez’s back as time expired. It was enough damage for two judges to score the fight Sadollah, the local crowd, not exactly thrilled with it.

Donald Cerrone puts on a clinic over Jeremy Stephens
Jeremy Stephens has tremendous power in his hands, but Donald Cerrone had no problem standing and trading with him. Cerrone who has been notorious in the past for starting slow, did just that against Stephens. But this time it seemed as if it was intentional as Cerrone’s pace seemed to switch from slow to fast from combo to combo.

Utilizing fantastic footwork, Cerrone found his range with devastating combos. Unlike many fighters who are content to land just a 1-2 combo, Cerrone instead switched his attacks up throwing varying punches before landing a leg kick, or leading with a kick and following it up with several punches.

Stephens left eye was hurt by the end of the first round, and by the end of the fight, it was nearly swollen shut. Cerrone decided to switch things up after landing almost at will and took Stephens down to the ground. Stephens landed his most significant strikes with several elbows to the top of Cerrone’s head. The elbows opened up a couple of cuts, but nothing that would warrant a stoppage from the doctor.

Greg Jackson told Cerrone in between rounds to just have fun and that is what it looked like. Cerrone was able to land combo after combo and then evade nearly everything Stephens threw at him.

For Cerrone it was a welcome back to what he does best, and he looked like the Cowboy that had put together a six fight win streak and nothing like he did against Diaz.

Yves Jabouin nearly finished Jeff Hougland
Every now and then a fight is marred by the ref and fans will end up all up in arms about it. The bantamweight battle between Yves Jabouin and Jeff Hougland will likely be one of those fights. After dropping Hougland with a spinning back kick in the first round, Hougland was visibly hurt and was in the fetal position. The ref looked to be stepping in to stop the fight, and inadvertently blocked the way for Jabouin to finish the fight right away.

Hougland needs to be recognized for his ability to recover quickly as every time Jabouin looked to finish the fight after dropping Hougland, somehow Hougland would recover. The combination of Hougland threatening with submissions, and Jabouin happy to stay within the guard of Hougland to try and finish gave Hougland the time to recover.

Hougland’s strategy was to stay outside and use his reach advantage, but it proved to be a flawed one. Jabouin utilized his speed advantage to get just inside the range and Hougland, while resilient wasn’t able to do much damage.

Jabouin’s constant pressure and ability to drop Hougland with body shots was extremely impressive and easily won him the unanimous decision.

Igor Pokrajac and Fabio Maldonado delight fans for fifteen minutes
The opening round between Igor Pokrajac and Fabio Maldonado was arguably one of the hardest to score in 2012. Pokrajac took Maldonado down in the opening seconds and worked damaging ground and pound at times looking close to finishing the fight. But Maldonado was able to escape, and once standing, started to find his range on Pokrajac. A series of short punches hurt Pokrajac and Maldonado was teeing off with peppering punches. Pokrajac weathered the storm and even returned fire with big knees that Maldonado just seemed to brush off.

Rounds two and three were even more exciting. Maldonado connected with punch after punch and body shot after body shot, buckling Pokrajac. But Pokrajac was able to stay standing, and as noted by Jon Anik, still has yet to be knocked down inside the octagon.

Pokrajac in the third started to land and seemed the faster of the two light heavyweights. Maldonado kept pushing forward, but seemed to eat more and more leather. With less than thirty seconds left, the two went blow for blow and the crowd loved every minute of it.

Tom Lawlor makes quick work of Jason MacDonald
Tom Lawlor was celebrating his 29th birthday as he entered the cage for his fight against Jason MacDonald. While sporting both a height and reach disadvantage to MacDonald, the gameplan was to press forward and work inside.

Early in the fight it was MacDonald who decided to try and test Lawlor’s wrestling with a takedown attempt but he failed. The two fighters split, and then started to find their range.

Lawlor backed MacDonald up against the cage and he missed with a right jab, dodged a jab from MacDonald, then connected with a straight left. The punch buckled MacDonald’s knees and Lawlor smartly backed up, planted his feet and then threw a finishing right hand that knocked MacDonald out cold. MacDonald fell face first into the canvas, and Lawlor was able to celebrate not only his birthday, but a victory as well.

Quick Results
Chan Sung Jung def. Dustin Poirier via technical submission (D’arce choke) – Round 4, 1:07
Amir Sadollah def. Jorge Lopez via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
Donald Cerrone def. Jeremy Stephens via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Yves Jabouin def. Jeff Hougland via unanimous decision via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 30-27)
Igor Pokrajac def. Fabio Maldonado via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 29-28)
Tom Lawlor def. Jason MacDonald via knockout (punches) – Round 1, 0:50
Brad Tavares def. Dongi Yang via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Cody McKenzie def. Marcus LeVesseur via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 1, 3:05
T.J. Grant def. Carlo Prater via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Rafael Dos Anjos def. Kamal Shalorus via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 1:40
Johnny Eduardo def. Jeff Curran via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Francisco Rivera def. Alex Soto via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Weigh ins for UFC on Fuel TV: Korean Zombie vs. Poirier took place today at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Virginia. The event will be the UFC’s third card on the FUEL network and it is set to be headlined by Chan Sung Jung and Dustin Poirier in a featherweight fight. All fighters made weight, and will go on as scheduled. Below are the full weigh in results for the card.

Featherweight
Chan Sung Jung 145 lbs.
Dustin Poirier 145 lbs.

Welterweight
Amir Sadollah 171 lbs.
Jorge Lopez 171 lbs.

Lightweight
Donald Cerrone 155 lbs.
Jeremy Stephens 155 lbs.

Bantamweight
Yves Jabouin 135 lbs.
Jeff Hougland 135 lbs.

Light Heavyweight
Igor Pokrajac 205 lbs.
Fabio Maldonado 205 lbs.

Middleweight
Jason MacDonald 185 lbs.
Tom Lawlor 186 lbs.

Lightweight
Cody McKenzie 155 lbs.
Marcus LeVesseur 155 lbs.

Middleweight
Brad Tavares 185 lbs.
Dongi Yang 186 lbs.

Lightweight
TJ Grant 155 lbs.
Carlo Prater 155 lbs.

Lightweight
Rafael dos Anjos 156 lbs.
Kamal Shalorus 155 lbs.

Bantamweight
Jeff Curran 135 lbs.
Johnny Eduardo 135 lbs.

Bantamweight
Alex Soto 135 lbs.
Francisco Rivera 134 lbs.

Jason MacDonald – via UFC.com

Kicking off the main card of UFC on Fuel TV 3, middleweights Tom Lawlor and Jason MacDonald are set to do battle. The event takes place on Tuesday, May 15 at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Virginia airing live on Fuel TV.

Lawlor became a fan favorite in the UFC with his weigh-in and walkout parodies. While the costumes and skits got him fans, it hasn’t panned out for the middleweight inside the octagon losing three of his last four. His losses come at the hands of Aaron Simpson, Joe Doerksen, and Chris Weidman while his victory came over Patrick Cote.

MacDonald who was dubbed the “Ultimate Fighter” killer early on in his UFC career, was cut from the organization in 2009 after suffering back-to-back losses. He put together a 3-1 record after being released, earning his way back to the UFC. Like Lawlor, he hasn’t fared too well, going just 1-2 in his recent stint losing to John Salter and Alan Belcher.

Both fighters are likely on the verge of being released should they fail to earn a victory in the fight. MacDonald has experience on his side, bringing a massive 40 fights with him.

In order for Lawlor to win, he will need to overwhelm MacDonald early on much like several of MacDonald’s opponents who hold victories over him. MacDonald will try to weather the storm and then turn up his intensity as Lawlor has shown to decrease in speed as the fight plays out.

Barring a quick TKO victory, this fight will probably end up going the full fifteen minutes with MacDonald winning the majority of the time and thus earning a unanimous decision, 29-28.

Chris Weidman will be fighting Tom Lawlor on the SpikeTV portion of UFC 139. He recently sat down with MMA Diehards to discuss his upcoming fight, his previous fights and more.

Are you going to come out with some outrageous walkout? You know your opponent is known for that, do you plan to up the stakes yourself and do something like that?
Nah I am not that creative. That’s kind of his thing and I will let him shine with that. I will try to shine when I get in the cage. I give him props for those walkouts as they are pretty sick.

In taking on Tom Lawlor, obviously he is a tough guy. We know your wrestling background, your grappling background. As much as you would like to test your standup, eventually you are going to take this guy down and punish him right?
I am going to test out my striking first. Every single one of my fights I throw punches and kicks before I get a takedown. As always I plan to mix it up and work some standup. I want to make the fight as exciting as possible.

In your debut fight against Alessio Sakara were you affected by the UFC jitters at all?
A little bit, but not too crazy. I would say it got to me a little bit, but not enough to stop me from winning that fight.

Were you surprised how that fight went?
The thing is I took that fight on short notice and had a little injury leading into it. I was a little unsure of what was going to happen. I didn’t get any sparing in. I didn’t know where I was at. My mind it could have gone bad. I didn’t know how I was going to do without the proper training. But I have great coaches around me that had faith in me.

You have had some trouble with injuries in your UFC career and fighters always say they don’t go into a fight without any. How close though do you feel to being 100%?
I am feeling awesome. Knock on wood I still have another week of training, but I am doing great.

Are you excited for the UFC on Fox debut?
Yeah I am pumped. I just hope that fight is as exciting as I think it is going to be. People who haven’t been exposed to mma and the UFC and their first time if it is a great show they become fans.

It’s been apparent in Tom Lawlor’s past couple of fights that his cardio is a bit of a problem. Are you really busting out the cardio in this fight or do you feel like you want to punish him for three rounds.
I like that, I am going to punish him. I mean one of my strengths in wrestling or jiu jitsu tournaments is my cardio. I definitely went hard with the cardio. I had a lot of time to prepare for this fight and my cardio has never been better. I could go at a very extreme pace for three rounds. I am not going to stop till he breaks mentally. I am going to be looking for the finish. I would love to knock him out cold, but I also would love to just totally dominate the fight for three rounds and break him.

Are you a proponent of training at different camps or are you sticking with one camp?
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. I go to Renzo Gracie’s academy. I am from Ray Longo and Matt Serra’s camp. But I do travel into the city to work with Renzo. I go to Delnore Kickboxing in Long Island. I do travel around a little bit, but for me I feel it is important to have a home. A place where you have guys that really care about you. If you are traveling around and traveling around it is hard to find that because they already have that. Ray Longo and Matt Serra I have that. It’s good to go around to different gyms to learn new techniques and sparring, but for your confidence and mental edge it is important to have a home.

How often do you go down to Renzo’s?
I go down every Monday and Saturday.

What song do you plan to walk out to?
The UFC just texted me about it and I haven’t had time to think of it. It will probably be something like Empire State of Mind.

Is it you can chose whatever you want or is there a list?
The UFC will let you pick whatever song you want and then approve it or not. Sometimes you pick a song that someone else already has and you have to pick a different one.

With Tom Lawlor moving up to Connecticut have you run across him in training circles at all or friends that have?
No. I didn’t even know he was up here. I know that he is out in California with Dan Henderson. But I didn’t know he was in Connecticut.

Do you feel like if you beat Tom that you will be a main card kind of guy or is that not something you really think about much?
I think so. I think I will probably be up there as far as my next fight. It depends who they give me. When I first started, my first fight was on a main card on a Versus, obviously not PPV. My manager at the time said once you were on the main card, all your fights will be on the main card. Then my next one was on Spike which was good. This one was supposed to be on Spike, then it wasn’t, now it might be. It’s a little stressful trying to figure it out and let my friends and family know so at this point I am just not worried about it.

You can listen to the full interview at MMA Diehards