UFC 181: Hendricks vs. Lawler II (12/6/2014) - Las Vegas, NV (Mandalay Bay Events Center)

[Elsalvajeloco]

 

UFC 181: Hendricks vs. Lawler II

December 6, 2014

Las Vegas, NV (Mandalay Bay Events Center)

 

UFC Welterweight Championship: Johny Hendricks © (170) vs. Robbie Lawler (170) (first defense) - Lawler, DEC (split)

UFC Lightweight Championship: Anthony Pettis © (154.5) vs. Gilbert Melendez (155) (first defense) - Pettis, SUB (mounted guillotine choke), R2 (1:53)

Travis Browne (243) vs. Brendan Schaub (244) - Browne, TKO (referee stoppage), R1 (4:50)

Todd Duffee (236.5) vs. Anthony Hamilton (256) - Duffee, KO (punches), R1 (0:33)

Tony Ferguson (156) vs. Abel Trujillo (156) - Ferguson, SUB (rear naked choke), R2 (4:19)

 

Fox Sports 1 Preliminary Card:

Urijah Faber (135.5) vs. Francisco Rivera (135) - Faber, SUB (modified rear naked choke), R2 (1:34)

Eddie Gordon (185.5) vs. Josh Samman (185.5) - Samman, KO (head kick), R2 (3:08)

Corey Anderson (204.5) vs. Justin Jones (204.5) - Anderson, DEC (unanimous)

Raquel Pennington (136) vs. Ashlee Evans-Smith (135.5) - Pennington, SUB (bulldog choke), R1 (4:59)

 

Fight Pass Preliminary Card:

Sergio Pettis (135) vs. Matt Hobar (136) - Pettis, DEC (unanimous)

Alex White (145.5) vs. Clay Collard (146) - Collard, DEC (unanimous)

 

Event Bonuses ($50,000):

Performance of the Night: Josh Samman

Performance of the Night: Anthony Pettis

Fight of the Night: Sergio Pettis vs. Matt Hobar

 

Attendance: 9,617

Gate: $2.488 million

Buyrate: 400,000

 

Cancelled Bouts:

Holly Holm vs. Milana Dudieva - Bout Nixed

Chris Weidman vs. Vitor Belfort - Injury to Weidman (Broken Hand)

Gian Villante vs. Corey Anderson - Injury to Villante

Corey Anderson vs. Jonathan Wilson - Injury to Wilson

Holly Holm vs. Raquel Pennington - Injury to Holm (Neck)

[TheVileOne]

Ironically enough, I will be in Vegas the weekend of the event...but for PlayStation Experience and not UFC.  If able I will try to catch the main card at a sports bar or something.

[twiztor]

whoa, i thought the FOX card was next weekend and this event was in a couple weeks.

[Elsalvajeloco]

FWIW

 

12/5 - Invicta FC: Waterson vs. Tiburcio

12/6 - UFC 181

12/12 - TUF 20 Finale

12/13 - UFC on FOX 13

12/20 - UFN: Machida vs. Dollaway

 

The 12/20 show in Barueri (SP) card is the last UFC card/ Zuffa affiliated programming of the calendar year.

[Zero]

Is it me, or was this show not promoted like at all? 

[J.T.]

Ironically enough, I will be in Vegas the weekend of the event...but for PlayStation Experience and not UFC.  If able I will try to catch the main card at a sports bar or something.

 

I was in Vegas for Paquiao - Marquez III.  Hard Rock Cafe next to the MGM Grand had the fight on every set and naturally every venue inside MGM with a television should be showing the UFC card.

[Craig H]

I've been looking forward to this one for awhile. WAR JOHNY HENDRICKS!

[Elsalvajeloco]

Is it me, or was this show not promoted like at all? 

 

Compared to the Fox show in 12 days, this show has been promoted like UFC 100. You would expect that card to get hammered home on all the Fox channels since it's a heavyweight novelty main card outside of RDA/Diaz. Maybe someone who paid closer attention to the Fox singleheader game yesterday (or the CFB on Fox games on Saturday) could say if they saw any advertising, but I didn't see any while I was watching my local game.

[glfpunk]

Yay, an actual real card! I will be watching this for sure.  First event in a while. 

 

On the poster- the bottom picture looks like Arlovski vs. either BJ Penn or Wanderlei.  The top picture has what looks like War Machine going up against Frank Shamrock.

[epwar]

The only ads I've seen for this PPV are during UFC shows.

[Elsalvajeloco]

SHOULDER PROGRAMMING ALERT: http://www.mmaweekly.com/ufc-fight-flashback-hendricks-vs-lawler-debuts-monday-on-fs1

[Elsalvajeloco]

Apparently, CM Punk will at the show tomorrow. If he is interested in fighting, Dana will talk to him.

[Elsalvajeloco]

Brief weigh in notes:

 

- Pennington and Evans-Smith showed why the male fighters need to step up their gaudy, garish tattoo game.

- Faber's response at the weigh-in illustrates that while he isn't a legit, concrete PPV draw, he is still the biggest star in terms of crowd support below 155. I can see why he is the PPV lead-in.

- Duffee looks a little smaller in his comeback, but still built like a college inside linebacker from the 80s. Just a physical freak of nature appearance wise.

- Browne looked impressive and Schaub looked soft.

- Pettis and Melendez were in great shape.

- Hendricks looked sucked down, but that's going to happen when you start camp in the 210-220 range. Lawler looked like he was ready to fuck shit up.

[Guest Edwin]

CM PUNK!!

[Craig H]

YES!

[Guest Edwin]

Call James Irvin.

[odessasteps]

When does Phil fight Kimbo or Hong-Choi Man?

Will Dana have to pony up to Living Color, too?

Ha ha ha ha ha

[Guest Edwin]

Punk vs. Kimbo would be the highest drawing fight in the history of MMA if it ever happened, but of course it's never happening for obvious reasons including both guys fighting in totally different weight classes far apart.

[Elsalvajeloco]

Dude Kimbo wanted a quarter million to fight Alexander Ustinov in boxing. His career in MMA and boxing is dead.

[Guest Edwin]

Really?? I don't really follow boxing aside from the big fights, but that's a long stretch. Is he a good boxer at all? I know he's undefeated as a boxer, but I don't see any noteworthy opponents he's possibly beat.

[Guest Edwin]

Back on topic... Travis Browne just mounted Metamoris ace Brendan Schaub more than once and he TKO'd him with ground and pound from said position.

[Elsalvajeloco]

Really?? I don't really follow boxing aside from the big fights, but that's a long stretch. Is he a good boxer at all? I know he's undefeated as a boxer, but I don't see any noteworthy opponents he's possibly beat.

 

Ustinov is basically a middle of the road but solid top 25-30 HW....who would absolutely slaughter him. Kimbo has only fought cab drivers and boxcar bums. No network is willing to showcase him fighting random club fighters so Gary Shaw basically can't bankroll his little Kimbo Slice in boxing venture. Ustinov's promoter offered him $25,000 and Kimbo's team wanted $250k. So there you go.

[Craig H]

Btw, I fully expect Punk to lose, but I'm still excited to see him fight.

[Guest Edwin]

Gil had a smart strategy, but Pettis pulled a Herica Tiburcio and choked him out with a guillotine.

[Craig H]

WTF?!? Holy shit. The fuckery here.