Recap: UFC Vancouver – The Uncrowned King at 170lbs

Demian Maia did what Demian Maia does.

Maia took Carlos Condit to the ground, passed his guard, took his back and choked him out; all in under two minutes, and it was beautiful. All hail Demian Maia: The Uncrowned King at 170lbs…

Charles Oliveira made his game plan very obvious from the opening minute of his fight with Anthony Pettis: get the fight to the ground. And for the first two and a half minutes, that plan was somewhat effective with Oliveira taking Pettis’ back early on. However, Pettis wasn’t there long and once the fight was on the feet, he dropped Oliveira with three big body shots and attempted to capitalise by following Oliviera to the canvas, though couldn’t quite finish the Brazilian before the buzzer. The second round opened with Oliveira pressing forward with his striking, giving up a takedown in the process, but it wasn’t long before he was back on his feet and trading with Pettis. Oliveira was certainly landing more volume in the exchanges in the second round, and once again managed to take Pettis’ back after having him pushed up against the cage. Pettis turned out of the back control and got back to his feet towards the end of the round, but Oliveira kept pressing forward, not giving Pettis any space to get his striking going. The third round saw Oliveira come out and take his man down, but Pettis managed to reverse the position and, when Oliveira tried to escape, Pettis dived on a guillotine and got the tap.

Judging by the first round of the fight between Bec Rawlings and Paige VanZant, VanZant still thinks she’s competing on Dancing With The Stars. The UFC’s golden girl danced around the outside of Bec Rawlings for the majority of the first round and, whenever she attempted to engage in any action, ate some punches and elbows in the clinch. The second round saw VanZant come out looking to engage a little more, within 20 seconds of the opening bell, VanZant landed a jumping switch kick that dropped Rawlins in spectacular style. VanZant followed up with ground and pound before the referee stepped in and called the stoppage.

The first round between Jim Miller and Joe Lauzon was a very close affair, with Lauzon pushing forward, looking to take the action to Miller, but Miller handling himself really well, fighting on the back foot and landing the cleaner, harder strikes. Lauzon managed to capitalise on a Miller mistake midway through the round and take it to the ground, but after landing some elbows Miller got to his feet and continued to pick off Lauzon as he pressed forward. The second round followed the same pattern, with Miller landing more on the feet for the majority of the round but again making a mistake when attempting to kick, that lead to him being put on his back and Lauzon having some success with his ground and pound. Jim Miller started the third round like a banshee, landing at will on Lauzon who sucked it up and continued to press forward, despite Miller’s best efforts, Lauzon again landed a takedown midway through the round and managed to get off some decent ground and pound before Miller got back to his feet. It didn’t take long before Lauzon had Miller back on the canvas and at the final bell attempted an arm bar that Miller escaped from. This was a razor close fight that the judges saw in the favour of Jim Miller via split decision.