In Bern, Switzerland on Epix, Wladimir Klitschko (58-3) defended his heavyweight championship in a rematch against Tony Thompson (36-3) with a TKO in round six. Thompson threw more punches than Klitschko, but was out of distance when throwing and had very few connects with very little power on them. Thompson needed to punch more aggressively to have had a chance.

Klitschko dropped the challenger in round five with a right hand to the mouth. Thompson never recovered and went down in round six from a barrage of punches. He was in the fetal postion on the canvas, but appeared more to be beaten with no hope to continue. It was a pathetic match up and Klitschko is in need of a real challenge. Klitschko did jab much less in the fight than his usual bouts.

On HBO, Nonito Donaire (29-1) continued his climb up the pound for pound ranks with a tough unanimous decision win over super bantamweight Jeffrey Mathebula (26-4-2). Donaire was the pressure fighter against his much taller opponent. 

Mathebula was dropped by a left hook to the jaw at the end of round four, but he recovered well. It was a competitive bout with Donaire taking most of the rounds, but Mathebula appeared to do enough to win rounds and many thought it was closer than the judges' scores ringside. HBO reported that Mathebula may have had his jaw broke near the end of the fight. 

In the HBO co-feature, super middleweight Kelly Pavlik (40-2) continued his comeback trail with a solid unanimous decision win over Will Rosinsky (16-2) in the ten round bout. Early in the fight, Pavlik knocked him down in round two with a short right hand to the chin. Rosinsky has fast hands and moves well, but he just did not have quite enough to win very many rounds. Pavlik did have a bruised ear and a cut over his eye after the bout. 

On Fox Sports Network, light middleweight Jesus Soto Karass (26-7-3) defeated Euri Gonzalez (20-3-1) by TKO in round five. Gonzalez was dropped by a right hand and Karass kept on him until the referee halted the bout. 

In the UFC 148 main event, Anderson Silva won the rematch with Chael Sonnen to retain his middleweight championship ,this time by TKO in round two. Silva started slow and Sonnen dominated in the opening session. It looked early that it was going to be a tough long fight for Silva and Sonnen dominated him on the mat most of the round. 

By the second round, Silva turned the fight around and came back strong. He made Sonnen miss badly causing him to slip and he hit him with a knee to the body. Sonnen was hurt by the knee and tried hanging on, but Silva  kept the barrage going with a mixture of shots eventually leading to the technical knockout with Sonnen left beat up on the mat. 

In the co-feature, Forrest Griffin defeated Tito Ortiz by decision. It was a close fight with some good action. Fans in attendance seemed to favor Ortiz as the winner, but there was a lot of back and forth making it difficult to score. Both fighters showed heart in the match up and it was supposed to be the final fight for Ortiz. 

Here are results of the opening bouts of the pay per view:
Cung Le defeated Patrick Cote by decsion.
Demian Maia beat Dong Hyun Kim by TKO in round one. 
Chad Mendes defeated Cody McKenzie by TKO in round one. 
Mike Eaton defeated Ivan Menjivar by decision. 

Fight Night Blog will be posting round by round updates of the UFC 148 pay per view main event Anderson Silva vs Chael Sonnen on the FNB Facebook Page and a full recap will be posted later on the website. Results of other televised PPV bouts will also be posted as they come in. Follow Fight Night Blog for MMA and Boxing. 

Silva gave Sonnen a shoulder bump during the weigh in yesterday that caused a little stir among some fans. 

UFC 148 Anderson Silva vs Chael Sonnen II Weigh In

Javier Fortuna (20-0) defeated veteran boxer Cristobal Cruz (39-14-3) by second round technical knockout in quick fashion on the super featherweight main event for ESPN Friday Night Fights. 

Fortuna made his opponenet look outmatched from the beginning with much better hand speed and power to go with it. Cruz was knocked down in the first round from a flurry of punches. In round two, the southpaw Fortuna caught him with a short powerful left hand that caused the referee to call the TKO when Cruz barely wobbled up to his feet with a bloody nose.

There was also a trio of four rounders televised:
Heavyweight Magomed Abdusalamov (15-0) defeated Maurice Byarm (13-2-1) by TKO round two.
Featherweight Rocco Santomauro (9-0) defeated DeWayne Wisdom (2-4) by unanimous decision.
Cruiserweight Mitch Williams (6-2-1) defeated Manuel Otero (2-4) by unanimous decision. 


Javier Fortuna vs Cristobal Cruz

Cornelies "K-9" Bundrage (32-4) battered Cory Spinks (39-7) in their rematch for a TKO win in round seven of the main event on ShoBox for the IBF light middleweight championship. Spinks looked really out of sorts and his legs were jello from the opening bell. Bundrage was rugged as usual, but still has a monstrous right hand. Spinks was hit by a sledgehammer overhand right from Bundrage late in the first round that dropped him. Rest of the fight was very sloppy, but Spinks did manage to get some connects and land body shots albeit with little power. By round seven, K-9 was landing solid right hands with this time dropping Spinks three times in the round which caused the referee to stop the fight. 

Former Olympian Gary Russell Jr (20-0) made a quick night of Christopher Perez (23-3) with a third round knock out victory in the featherweight match. The speed and combinations were too much for the outmatched Perez. Russell knocked down Perez three times with the last one putting him through the ropes. He had knockdowns with both his right hook and straight left. 

The first bout of the night was competitive with a solid unanimous decision win for light middleweight Erislandy Lara (17-1-1) over Freddy Hernandez (30-3). Lara used his boxing skills and hand speed to run the show. It did get interesting in the sixth when Hernandez was verbally challenging his opponent to fight after Lara did an awkward move featuring a double punch and headbutt all in one. In round seven, Hernandez suffered another headbutt that this time caused a cut and Lara was deducted a point. Lara coasted the rest of the way while Hernandez slowed late in the fight. 
 

Light welterweight Ruslan Provodnikov (22-1) wasted no time on the ESPN Friday Night Fights main event with a knock out of Jose Reynoso (16-4-1) in round two. The Russian hammered Reynoso with hard shots including some good body punches and ended the fight with a sweeping right to the head. Provodnikov dominated his outclassed opponent as expected.

The co-feature was also an entertaining fight. Junior featherweight Christopher Martin (24-2-3) defeated Roberto Castaneda (20-2) by knockout in round six via a body shot. Martin started out very slow and was mostly just throwing pop shots while Castaneda was outworking him. By round five, Castaneda slowed and Martin found his weak spot which was the body. Late in the fifth, Martin dropped him with a right uppercut to the solar plexus and went back to the body in round six with a left hook to the liver that finished him off. 

Rich Franklin defeated Wanderlei Silva by unanimous decision in the UFC 147 main event. Franklin used his movement and jab to stay in control most of the fight, but there were good moments of action and Silva almost had a knockout victory in round two. Round by round updates were also provided on the Fight Night Blog Facebook page. 

Round one started off slow with occasional strikes landing by both men and was difficult to score. In the second, Franklin was moving forward while Silva was content on countering. It looked like Franklin was beginning to gain control until Silva rocked him with repeated hard shots including dropping him with a knee and a straight right hand while finishing the round with some ground and pound. 

Franklin barely made it through the second, but in the third, he regained his composure. Franklin used movement by constant circling and jabbing to control the fight. During the last seconds of the final round, they went wild throwing punches and Silva was clipped with a left from Franklin around the final bell. Final scorecards were all 29-26 for Franklin.

In the TUF finals, middleweight Cezar Ferreira defeated Sergio Moraes by unanimous decision and featherweight Rony Jason also defeated Godofredo Pepey by unanimous decision.

Other pay per view results: 
Fabricio Werdum defeated Mike Russow by KO round one.
Hacran Dias defeated Yuri Alcantara by unanimous decision.

UFC 147: Rich Franklin Post Presser Highlights

In an electrifying upset, Josesito Lopez (30-4) defeated Victor Ortiz (29-4-2) by TKO after round nine of the Showtime welterweight main event. According to reports ringside, Lopez broke Ortiz's jaw early in round nine. Ortiz then quit on his stool after the round while spitting up blood. It brought reminders of Muhammad Ali vs. Ken Norton except without the Ali. 

It was a good fight from beginning to end with back and forth action. Lopez showed no fear and obviously came to fight. Lopez came out strong, but he was also hurt by a straight left hand followed by a right hook in round two. He regained his composure while keeping a steady pace and backing off Ortiz with his punches in return. In round five, Ortiz pulled a dirty move by bluntly hitting Lopez in the back of the head. However by round seven, Lopez was putting together strong effective combinations and egging on Ortiz to fight. 

Unknown initially, a left hook to Ortiz's jaw while his mouth was open may have caused the injury early in the ninth that led to the technical knockout. Showtime's Jim Gray attempted to interview Ortiz, but he sounded like a drunken sailor doing a bad Daffy Duck impersonation and his handlers took him away. Ortiz was up on all judges' scorecards at the time of the stoppage by 86-85, 87-84, and 88-83. 

Victor Ortiz was set to fight Saul "Canelo" Alvarez in September on pay per view, but that will not happen and this is another drastic setback for Ortiz. His heart has been questioned before when he quit against Marcos Maidana earlier in his career and his recent debacle in the Mayweather fight along with this will drop Ortiz's status significantly. He appears to break down mentally too often in tough fights to be an elite boxer. Ortiz did look badly hurt, but just too many of his fights have ended in a strange manner. 

In the co-feature, Lucas Matthysse (31-2) defeated Humberto Soto (58-8-2) by TKO after round five. Soto did well early, but got into a firefight. Matthysse dropped Soto at the end of round five as a result of consecutive ruthless overhand rights. Soto was not able to recover and his corner called the bout while he sat on the stool. 

Both Showtime fights ended with fighters on their stools, but both were very entertaining bouts. 


Recap: Victor Ortiz vs. Josesito Lopez & Humberto Soto vs. Lucas Matthysse

UFC 147 is on tonight with the main event featuring Wanderlei Silva vs. Rich Franklin. FNB will provide round by round updates of the main event and results of the pay per view undercards on the Fight Night Blog Facebook page. The full recap of the main event will be posted on the FNB website later.  

UFC 147: Silva vs Franklin II Extended Preview

Mike Dallas Jr (19-2-1) defeated Javier Castro (27-5) by TKO victory in the light welterweight main event on ESPN Friday Night Fights. Dallas was holding often in the fight. He did suddenly spark alive in round six and rocked Castro with a hard right hand followed by more hard connects leading to the stoppage. Castro was still standing, but was not returning punches and took repeated flush shots. For Dallas, he has made a good comeback since his TKO loss to Josesito Lopez by winning two in a row with only one loss since the Lopez bout which was a majority decision. 

Mike Dallas Jr vs Javier Castro