Nate Marquardt’s loss proved to be Charlie Brenneman’s gain.

“The Spaniard” had a crazy week in his own right, and it ended with him picking up a unanimous win over Rick Story in the co-main event of UFC Live 4 on Sunday night. It also all went down in his home town of Pittsburgh.

Originally scheduled to face T.J. Grant, Brenneman was told he wouldn’t have a fight early in the week after Grant came down with an illness.

Dana White and the UFC told Brenneman to make weight for Saturday and he would earn a winner’s payday. Somehow, that turned out to be a blessing for both parties as Nate Marquardt failed to get a license for his main event bout. Just 24 hours before UFC Live 4 took place, Brenneman was offered to fill in for Marquardt, and he accepted.

What happened in the octagon was Brenneman using his wrestling to keep Story on the ground for two rounds. Story won the third, but was unable to finish the scrappy Brenneman, who improves to 3-1 in the UFC with the win.

It was a tough spot for Story, who was looking to earn the biggest win in his MMA career and then had to take on a fight against an opponent he hadn’t trained for. To me, Story shouldn’t drop in the rankings, as he originally took the fight with Marquardt on short notice to raise his profile.

In the main event, Cheick Kongo knocked out Pat Barry in maybe the craziest fight I have ever seen. Barry seemingly had Kongo out twice, but referee Dan Miragliotta let the fight continue and Kongo hit Barry with two big punches that put Barry out cold.

It was a good win for Kongo, but he should thank his lucky stars that he had a very lenient ref.

Matt Mitrione continued to raise his stock as he earned a second round TKO win over Christian Morecraft. Mitrione looked sharp with his striking once again, but did get taken down a few times by Morecraft. Still, he was able to get back up with relative ease and finished the fight impressively.

In prelim action, Tyson Griffin and Joe Stevenson made their featherweight debuts. Griffin was able to win his by decision over Manny Gamburyan while Stevenson lost his by decision to Javier Vazquez.

UFC Live 4 Results

Cheick Kongo def. Pat Barry by first round KO (2:39)

Charlie Brenneman def. Rick Story by unanimous decision

Matt Brown def. John Howard by unanimous decision

Matt Mitrione def. Christian Morecraft by second round KO (4:28)

Tyson Griffin def. Manny Gamburyan by unanimous decision

Javier Vazquez def. Joe Stevenson by unanimous decision

Joe Lauzon def. Curt Warburton by first round submission (1:58)

Rich Attonito def. Daniel Roberts by unanimous decision

Charles Oliveira def. Nik Lentz by second round submission (1:48)

Ricardo Lamas def. Matt Grice by first round TKO (4:41)

Micharl Johnson def. Edward Faaloloto by first round TKO (4:42)