The Ultimate Fighting Championship returned to Colorado for the first time in 13 years with UFC Fight Night 13 at Broomfield Events Center just outside of Denver. Quite a bit has changed since the octagon last appeared in the Rocky Mountain State, including sanctioning and true mixed martial artists. Back in the 1990’s, the UFC was still sort of a Toughman competition pitting certain styles against each other.

Advertisement

The display in Wednesday night’s main event just goes to show how far this sport has evolved.

Kenny Florian won a hard-fought two-round affair with Joe Lauzon when referee Herb Dean stopped the fight due to strikes at the 3:28 mark. Florian saw his record improve to 9-3 while cashing tickets as a $2.20 favorite (bet $220 to win $100).

The first round was extremely competitive and difficult to score with both fighters unloading on each other. Lauzon (16-4) won that round on the judges’ scorecards despite getting cut early on the back of his head from a barrage of elbows. Lauzon took the round with his numerous submission attempts and overall aggression, but it was hardly decisive.

The second round remained very competitive, but Florian took control once he gained full mount of his opponent. From there, the Massachusetts native unloaded with strikes until the fight was called. Florian didn’t land many of the strikes that ended the fight, but Lauzon couldn’t do anything but cover up and wait for the end.

“I just want to keep cutting through the layers and find a hole,” stated Florian. “Joe’s a great competitor and I knew it was going to be a tough fight, but I’m not going to let anybody break my will in here.”

There was plenty of action besides the main event.

It took just eight seconds for backers of James ‘The Sandman’ Irvin (14-4) to cash tickets with his knockout victory over Houston ‘The Assassin’ Alexander (8-3) in a light heavyweight contest. ‘The Sandman’ triumphed as a decided $2.00 underdog (bet $100 to win $200). The eight-second knockout ties a record for fastest knockout in UFC history.

Irvin connected with a right hand as soon as the fight started that floored Alexander, then ‘The Sandman’ unloaded three punches before referee Steve Mazzagatti stopped the contest.

“The first punch barely got his chin,” said Irvin. “But the second one was about as hard as I can hit, and it was pretty solid on him.”

In welterweight action, Thiago ‘The Pitbull’ Alves (14-3) beat Karo ‘The Heat’ Parisyan (18-5) at the 34-second mark of the second round from a devastating knee. Alves, a $1.55 underdog, has now won his last five UFC fights. ‘The Pitbull’ jumped on Parisyan after knocking him down with the knee and unleashed a series of punches before the contest was stopped.

It was the first time in Parisyan’s career that he has been knocked out and it will be interesting to see how he recovers from this setback. ‘The Heat’ never got a shot at the title after pulling out of a championship matchup a couple years ago due to an injury.

Brad Young can be reached at byoung@vegasinsider.com.