TUF 13 Finale Prelim Results — Stephens Beats but Can’t Break Gutsy Downes at LinesMaker

LAS VEGAS, June 4 — There was lit­tle drama when the scores were read after the light­weight bout between Jeremy Stephens and Danny Downes at The Palms Sat­ur­day night. But dur­ing the Ulti­mate Fighter 13 finale card, there was plenty as Downes may have lost the three round unan­i­mous deci­sion, but he gained plenty of fans for a coura­geous per­for­mance in defeat that saw him sur­vive a well-rounded attack from the Iowa native that included plenty of thud­ding punches and a tight kimura attempt. See Stephens post-fight interview

“That kid is tough,” said Stephens, who took the bout via scores of 30–26 twice and 30–27. See Downes post-fight interview

Stephens was patient, yet pun­ish­ing in the open­ing round, pick­ing his shots and then deliv­er­ing them with bad intent. Downes hung tough, but his return fire was hav­ing lit­tle effect on the “Lil’ Heathen.”

Downes (8–2) got a guil­lo­tine choke on Stephens in the first minute of round two, but Stephens pow­ered loose and used ground strikes to set up a painful kimura attempt. Downes refused to tap, and after a few tense moments, he got loose, only to take a fore­arm flush to the face for his trou­ble. Sec­onds later, Downes rose to his feet, After a brief break for Stephens to recover from an inad­ver­tent low kick, the two traded briefly before a Stephens take­down in the final 30 seconds.

A nasty cut opened over Downes’ left eye in the third round, and a slam by Stephens (20–6) in the sec­ond minute drew a roar from the crowd. Once stand­ing, Stephens con­tin­ued to land hard shots on Downes, who refused to go away. Stephens made a last-ditch effort for a fin­ish on the ground with a rear naked choke, but time ran out on him.

ROOP vs. GRISPI

Josh Grispi dom­i­nated his oppo­si­tion in the WEC, but he’s found trans­lat­ing those per­for­mances to the UFC, as he lost his sec­ond con­sec­u­tive Octa­gon bout, get­ting halted by George Roop in the third round, mark­ing one of Roop’s most impres­sive vic­to­ries to date. See post-fight interview

Grispi, who was com­ing off a deci­sion loss to Dustin Poirier in Jan­u­ary, got an early take­down and kept the bout on the mat for much of the round, but the busy Roop even­tu­ally fought his way free, and in the final minute, he came back and got the upper hand on the mat him­self, fin­ish­ing the round strong.

Roop (12–8–1) dropped Grispi in the open­ing sec­onds of round two and pushed the New Eng­lan­der to the fence, where he con­tin­ued the pun­ish­ing ground assault he started in the pre­vi­ous stanza.

In the third, Grispi (14–3) moved for­ward and tried to regain the lead, but after a take­down, Roop rose and began unleash­ing a flurry of punches and kicks. A right to the body soon dropped Grispi, and as soon as he hit the deck, ref­eree Herb Dean stopped the bout. The time of the stop­page was 3:14.

BAILEY vs. McGILLIVRAY

Shamar Bai­ley shut out his TUF 13 cast­mate Ryan McGillivray, tak­ing all three rounds of their wel­ter­weight bout. Scores were 30–27 across the board. See post-fight interview

Bai­ley impressed from the open­ing bell, with his crisp standup and take­downs keep­ing McGillivray unable to mount any offen­sive response. McGillivray still had prob­lems fig­ur­ing Bai­ley out in the sec­ond frame, but he came out fir­ing as round three opened in a quest to turn the fight around. The vet­eran Bai­ley wouldn’t get rat­tled though, and when­ever the bout strayed to the mat, he con­tin­ued to dom­i­nate, lock­ing up the three round win.

Bai­ley ups his record to 12–3 with the win; McGillivray falls to 11–5–1.

HARVISON vs. EDWARDS

TUF 13 com­peti­tors Clay Harvi­son and Justin Edwards gave a great effort in their bout, with Harvi­son eking out a three round split deci­sion vic­tory. See post-fight interview

Scores were 29–28 twice and 28–29 for Harvi­son, who improves to 9–4; Edwards falls to 7–1.

Edwards dom­i­nated for most of the fast-paced open­ing round, but Harvi­son, never back­ing down, had a nice late surge that reminded his cast­mate that he was still around.

Harvi­son made his move in the sec­ond, and as the pace dipped, he took over with some solid strik­ing and take­down defense, and as round three opened, he rocked Edwards and began tee­ing off with strikes. Edwards fired back, but he was get­ting the worst of the exchanges, and things didn’t improve when Harvi­son took him to the mat. After grab­bing a breather between elbows and fore­arms, Edwards got to his feet and scored a take­down of his own that got him back in the scor­ing col­umn before the two stood. Now both fight­ers were show­ing the wear of the bat­tle, and Edwards got two more take­downs in the final minute of the enter­tain­ing wel­ter­weight scrap.  

JORGENSEN vs. STONE

For­mer WEC ban­tamweight stand­out Scott Jor­gensen made his long-awaited UFC debut and he didn’t dis­ap­point, knock­ing out Ken Stone in the first round. See post-fight interview

Stone (9–3) was sharp in the early going, keep­ing Jor­gensen (12–4) off-balance with solid strik­ing. But once the WEC title chal­lenger got the take­down, he turned things up, and after drilling his foe with a right hand, Stone went out, with ref­eree Steve Maz­za­gatti finally stop­ping the bout after a cou­ple unnec­es­sary shots at 4:01 of the opening round.

It was Jorgensen’s first bout since a Decem­ber 2010 loss to UFC ban­tamweight boss Dominick Cruz.

DURAN vs. RIVERA

Reuben Duran won a bat­tle of ban­tamweight prospects with Fran­cisco Rivera, heat­ing up as the fight went on before he fin­ished mat­ters with a third round sub­mis­sion. See post-fight interview

Rivera and Duran traded guil­lo­tine choke attempts in the open­ing round, and when they weren’t try­ing to sub­mit each other, they deliv­ered some com­pelling action at close range along the fence, with each hav­ing their moments. Some late ground and pound from Rivera may have allowed him to steal the round though.

The sec­ond round was equally com­pelling, with Duran and Rivera slug­ging it out early before Duran sur­vived another guil­lo­tine choke attempt and went on to con­trol the rest of the period, run­ning out of time when he took his foe’s back in the clos­ing seconds.

With the fight still up for grabs, Duran snatched it away in the third, putting Rivera down a minute in, tak­ing his back and sub­mit­ting his with a rear naked choke at the 1:57 mark.

With the win, Duran improves to 8–3–1; Rivera falls to 5–2.

 

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