UFC 133 Results & Recap: Evans at his best
It had been 14 months since Rashad Evans (AP Photo) competed inside the UFC Octagon, but clearly he was making the most of his time off.
The former light heavyweight champion looked as good as he ever has in a second round TKO win over Tito Ortiz in the main event of UFC 133 on Saturday.
Evans looked thicker, faster, and smarter in the octagon. His lone hiccup came when he was slightly taken down by Ortiz early in the fight, but he suffered no damage and turned the tide in his favor soon after.
Evans peppered Ortiz with heavy punches in the first round, but Ortiz managed to make the bell.
The dominance continued in the second round, as Evans landed a big slam of Ortiz and then beat on him for a few minutes before ending the fight with a knee to the sternum and a flurry of punches from the ground.
Evans clearly has established himself as the No.1 contender for the UFC title, and now he waits for the Jon Jones-Rampage Jackson winner. I think Evans has a style that could cause Jones a lot of problems, and he already owns a win over Jackson.
For Ortiz, he deserves credit for taking the fight on short notice. But, his performance on Saturday seems to be a better representation of his current abilities in the UFC than his win over Ryan Bader at UFC 132.
In the co-main event, Vitor Belfort returned to form, knocking out Yoshihiro Akiyama in the first round after an explosive barrage of strikes.
Belfort was cautious in the early going, but once he landed a few punches, he went in for the kill, and got it. Belfort showed his trademark fists of fury to set up the finish, which came when he landed an uppercut on the ground that put Akiyama out cold.
Belfort is back in the mix for a middleweight title shot with the win while Akiyama is now 1-3 in the UFC and could be in danger of losing his job.
In another highlight, 22-year-old Rory MacDonald finished veteran Mike Pyle in the first round of their welterweight contest. MacDonald out-classed Pyle in every aspect of the fight and proved that he is a top-10 welterweight, if not top 5.
For complete results from UFC 133, see below.
UFC 133 Quick Results (Courtesy of MMAMania.com)
Rashad Evans defeats Tito Ortiz via TKO (Strikes) Round 2
Vitor Belfort defeats Yoshihiro Akiyama via TKO (Strikes) Round 1
Constantinos Philipou defeats Jorge Rivera via Split Decision
Rory MacDonald defeats Mike Pyle via TKO (Strikes) Round 1
Brian Ebersole defeats Dennis Hallman via TKO (Strikes) Round 1
Alexander Gustafsson defeats Matt Hamill via TKO (Strikes) Round 2
Chad Mendes defeats Rani Yahya via Unanimous Decision
Ivan Menjivar def. Nick Pace via unanimous decision
Johny Hendricks def. Mike Pierce via split decision
Rafael Natal def. Paul Bradley via unanimous decision
Mike Brown def. Nam Phan via unanimous decision
Posted in: Events, Fighters, Results, UFC
Tags: Mike Pyle, Rashad Evans, Rory MacDonald, Tito Ortiz, UFC 133, Vitor Belfort, Yoshihiro Akiyama
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