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Going to the Scorecards
August 10, 2008
By Brad Young VegasInsider.com
T he Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota connected with a bulls eye Saturday night for UFC 87: Seek and Destroy. The final three bouts of the evening all went to the scorecards, and all three were decided by unanimous decision.
Georges ‘Rush’ St. Pierre retained his welterweight title with a workmanlike performance over Jon Fitch, winning 50-44 on two judges’ scorecards and 50-43 on the third. VegasInsider.com also scored the contest in favor of the French Canadian, 50-45.
St. Pierre was appreciative after the fight, praising the challenger. That marked his first successful defense of the 170-pound title, prevailing as a $4.00 favorite (bet $400 to win $100).
“I told him that this loss will make him stronger,” said St. Pierre. “I’m ready to fight everyone who deserves a shot, and I know BJ (Penn) wants it.”
Lightweight champion BJ Penn was in the octagon shortly after Saturday’s main event, wanting a rematch with St. Pierre. These two fought at UFC 58: USA vs. Canada, with St. Pierre winning a razor-thin split decision.
St. Pierre won every round on the judges’ scorecards, controlling the action with some nice shots standing up and enjoying dominant position on the ground. Fitch is known as a grinder, and showed plenty of heart by going the distance. There were a couple of times that the fight appeared close to the end, but Fitch showed tons of heart lasting all five rounds.
The heavyweight contest lasted longer than expected, but was extremely one sided.
Brock Lesnar is a force, with as much finesse as a Sherman tank. Short on technique but loaded with power, Lesnar (2-1) dominated Heath ‘Texas Crazy Horse’ Herring (29-14-1) over three rounds to easily win a unanimous decision on all three cards, 30-26. The Minnesota native took the opening stanza on the judges’ scorecards, 10-8. VI scored the contest in favor of Lesnar, 30-27.
Lesnar knocked down Herring in the first few seconds with an overhand right, and controlled the entire fight by taking dominant position on the ground. Lesnar relied on his wrestling background, but reverted to his World Wrestling Entertainment days with a postfight celebration.
Lesnar provided the best entrance of the night when he came out to Motley Crue’s ‘Shout at the Devil.’ The 6-foot-2 wrestler easily rewarded backers as a $2.50 favorite.
Kenny Florian and Roger ‘El Matador’ Huerta locked up in an entertaining lightweight matchup that was also decided by the judges. Florian (10-3) won on all three cards, 30-27. VI scored the contest in favor of Florian, 29-28.
Huerta (22-2-1) suffered his first setback with the UFC in a fight that was much closer than the scorecards indicated. Florian cashed tickets as a $1.60 favorite, and is now the top contender to take on Penn sometime next year.
Knockout of the night occurred just 12 seconds into the Rob Emerson-Manny Gamburyan fight, also providing the biggest upset on the UFC 87 card. Emerson (8-6) connected with an overhand right that knocked down Gamburyan (8-3) before ending the fight with a lethal left hook on the ground.
“He said he was going to come out strong,” said Emerson. “It was just a right hand that connected, if that punch didn’t land it would have been a war.”
Brad Young can be reached at byoung@vegasinsider.com.
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