It looks like the UFC will need to find someone else to try and solve the Stephen Thompson puzzle because Rory MacDonald failed miserably. Despite his best attempts MacDonald could not put any real damage on Thompson throughout the five rounds of this fight. Thompson used his movement and unorthodox striking to keep MacDonald at bay and frustrate not only him but the crowd in the arena too who were very vocal during this fight. Thompson continues to win fights with excellent counter striking, good use of movement and an ever improving takedown defence which MacDonald had no answer for. The last three minutes saw the most action of the fight with both MacDonald and Thompson happy to stand and exchange with each other in the centre of the ring but MacDonald came off worse, with Thompson having him hurt late on in the fight following an exchange of strikes between the two but credit to MacDonald, he continued until the final bell. The fight was awarded to Stephen Thompson via unanimous decision and you’ll get no arguments from me.

It took Donald Cerrone two and a half rounds to finish Patrick Coté but he finally managed it in the third round after dominating the former middleweight contender for the majority of their fight. Cerrone picked Cote apart throughout the fight, landing beautiful combinations that the Canadian had no answer for. Cerrone also had great success with his takedowns early on in the fight but seemed to disregard any further takedowns after the first round. The finish to this fight saw Cerrone drop Cote with left hooks before finishing him with ground and pound from the mount.

Steve Bossé and Sean O’Connell did exactly what they were booked to do in their fight, with both light heavyweight coming out swinging for the fences. Bosse appeared to land the heavier shots early on but O’Connell dropped Bosse midway through the round but couldn’t finish the durable Bosse and they continued to trade shots as the round ended. The second round continued be full of unrelenting violence between the two fighters. This time though Bosse appeared to be getting the upper hand in the fight, dropping O’Connell midway through the round and started to lay some heavy ground and pound on O’Connell but he was two tough for Bosse to put away and managed to get to his feet as the round ended. The third round had the two fighters happy to sit in the pocket and fire off huge shots to each other’s chins with both fighters seemingly unconcerned with defending their faces against their opponents strikes. At the end of the fight. Steve Bosse was deemed to have done enough to win the fight via unanimous decision by the judges.

Olivier Aubin-Mercier and Thibault Gouti went head to head in a lightweight contest that saw Goutj struggle with the grappling of Aubin-Mercier. Gouti started the fight well and was finding success with his striking before Aubin-Mercier started to impose his wrestling on this fight and despite Gouti’s best effort he couldn’t get going and struggled against the heavy pressure of Aubin-Mercier. Gouti continued to struggle with the relentless takedown attacks of Aubin-Mercier and midway through the fourth round Aubin-Mercier used this to his advantage and after taking Gouti’s back, Aubin-Mercier sunk in a rear naked choke that forced Gouti to tap.

The opening fight on the main card, had Valerie Létourneau face Joanne Calderwood in a flyweight fight. Calderwood dominated the three round fight, using her Muay Thai to pick Létourneau apart. Calderwood us Létourneau on the ropes in the first round with a spinning elbow that dropped her opponent but couldn’t quite get the finish. Calderwood continued to punish Létourneau in the second round with big body shots and a couple of takedowns that had Calderwood in cruise control going in to the third. In the third round Calderwood rocked Létourneau with some huge front kicks that had Létourneau doubled over and turning her back to Calderwood. In the second occasion, Calderwood followed her and landed several strikes that saw the referee step in and end the fight.


AUTHOR:

DOM BURY

LEAD WRITER

Welsh BJJ Blue Belt and founding member of the Gunnar Nelson Fan club. Known vagabond and all round scumbag.

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