Novice // Mir Stops "Cro Cop" at UFC® 119

While the madness of Olympia Weekend was taking over the city of Las Vegas this past weekend, the UFC® took its act to Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana Saturday night for UFC® 119. While the main event wasn’t exactly the most thrilling fight in the promotion’s history, it certainly ended with a bang, and the supporting card featured plenty of close contests and tough calls for the night’s judges.The headliner saw Frank Mir and Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic engage in two-and-a-half rounds of measuring and feeling out, without much in the way of actual engagement. Both fighters seemed tentative, and the pair had to be separated from the clinch more than once. Glancing blows and unsuccessful takedowns were the story. Then, with less than a minute remaining in the match, Mir scored with a perfectly-timed standing knee that knocked the Croatian legend out cold. He landed a couple follow-up punches before the ref could intervene, but “Cro Cop” was clearly done. It was a rather surprising ending given the way the match had played out to that point, and saved the judges from a pretty tough decision between a pair of otherwise lackluster performances. Given the nature of the fight, Mir’s win actually does little for his stock in a hotly-contested heavyweight division, and he’ll likely need at least one more strong, high-profile victory before he can be considered a legitimate title contender once again. As for “Cro Cop,” it looks like it’s back to the drawing board for the once-dominant striker.The contest between Ryan “Darth” Bader and Antonio Rogerio “Minotoro” Nogueira proved to be an interesting lesson in the importance of timing. While Bader looked overmatched at times in the stand-up against Nogueira’s accomplished boxing, he also seemed hesitant to spend too much time on the mat with the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt. With the fighters arguably splitting the first two rounds, Nogueira seemed to have the upper hand in the third, stuffing a couple takedown attempts and landing some decent shots. But Bader scored a pair of late takedowns that effectively stole the momentum, and eventually the fight. The closely-contested bout went to Bader in a unanimous decision, setting him up for another elite test in the talented light heavyweight division.While it seemed unlikely last week, it turns out that welterweight Chris “Lights Out” Lytle dominated his fight against Matt Serra while remaining exclusively on his feet. Conventional wisdom said that Serra’s heavy hands would only spell trouble in the stand-up for Lytle, but the veteran continues to defy expectations and deliver impressive performances almost every time he steps in the Octagon®. Serra simply couldn’t keep up with Lytle’s pace in the boxing exhibition, and Lytle won all three rounds handily en route to the unanimous decision victory. With the run he’s been on, Lytle certainly deserves a truly elite welterweight in his next match, and at 36 years old, the veteran might even be working his way into legitimate title contention.Lots of decisions in this one, but all things considered it was another strong main event showing for the world’s premier MMA organization!