Florian Finishes Lauzon at 5,000 Feet

“KenFlo” Kenny Florian (9-3) finished fellow Bostonian lightweight “J-Lau” Joe Lauzon (16-4) in a vicious pounding from the full mount at 3:28 of round two in the main event of Ultimate Fight Night Live in Denver tonight.

The former title challenger from Sityodtong, Florian, dominated the quirky computer tech.

“KenFlo” opened a gash on the back of Lauzon’s head with elbows from his full guard in the first round, but was warned by referee Herb Dean for striking behind the head.

It was a call Dean missed while refereeing a lightweight fight between “Cleat” Rich Crunkilton (16-2) and Sergio Gomez (7-2) at last week’s Las Vegas WEC event.

After the stand-up, Lauzon clinched for a takedown and stepped over Florians body in half-guard for a knee bar that turned into a Achilles lock that Florian yanked free from.

Lauzon snatched an ankle again and reclined into a heel hook that Florian was again able to wriggle free from to end the round.

The frantic mat work and elevation exhausted “J-Lau” for the second round and Florian was able to score a takedown into full mount that Lauzon never bucked free from.

Florian poured on a cocktail of elbows, straights, and hammerfists from the mount, but Lauzon defended.  Dean called an end to the fight after it was clear Lauzon was to spent to transition out of the bad spot.

In a grueling war game between undefeated wrestlers, “The Bully” Gray Maynard (5-0) won a decisive unanimous decision over “The Answer” Frank Edgar (8-1).

Maynard set the pace in the first round by stuffing Edgar’s takedown attempts and deciding when he’d take the inevitable wrestling match to the mat.

Edgar made it a scrap in the second round with crisp 1-2 combos that scored, but Maynard continued to stuff “The Answer’s” shot and score his own powerful takedowns, though neither fighter did much more than molest the other on the mat.

Edgar was gassed by round three and the bigger “Bully” slammed Edgar three times to convince all three judges he was dominant.

Earlier in the night, “Rumble” Anthony Johnson (5-1) pummeled TUF finalist Tom Speer (9-3) over 51 seconds, knocking home the stoppage “W” with a clean straight right that slumped Speer against the cage.

“I’m crunk right now, I’m real crunk,” said Johnson after the fight.

Johnson began the end with a left kick to Speer’s head as the wrestler attempted to shoot, followed by a knee that backed Speer to the cage.   Speer was out on his feet when he absorbed the death blow.

In a welterweight clash, “The Pitbull” Thiago Alves (14-3) crumpled “The Heat” Karo Parisyan (18-5) with a left knee strike to Parisyan’s head in the second round as Parisyan sought the clinch.

At 34-seconds of the round, referee Steve Mazzagatti dove across the downed fighter as he defended Alves’s follow-up pounding.

“The referee did a good job,” Alves claimed after Parisyan disputed the stoppage.  “He was out!”

Parisyan had won round one with deft, one-off striking versus the American Top Team trained kickboxer, who appeared wary of Parisyan’s takedowns. 

In his UFC debut last February, “The Barbarian” Tim Boetsch (7-2) surprised David Heath (7-3) with an onslaught ending in a first-round Boetsch TKO.

Tonight, “The Hammer” Matt Hamill (4-1) weathered Boetsch’s first round avalanche of strikes to reveal “The Barbarian” couldn’t continue his barrage passed the first five minutes.

Hamill began the fight with a powerful double-leg takedown, but couldn’t capitalize before the referee stood the fighters.

Boetsch proved effective with a repeating knee strike that split Hamill’s lip like a ripe peach, splashing blood across Hamill’s chest.

In round two, Boetsch heaved heavily from his corner.  He shot for a single-leg takedown and held Hamill’s leg as the champion wrestler hovered over him hammering punches.  Boetsch rolled into guard, but had nothing left as “The Hammer” finished him at 1:25 with undefended plugs to Boetsch’s face.

Fast-rising Nathan Diaz (9-2) submitted Kurt Pellegrino (11-4) in an air-tight leg triangle choke in the second round of their undercard match, flashing double middle fingers in the air as Pellegrino tapped helplessly.

Diaz was cut on his right eyelid by Pellegrino punches in a first round controlled on the mat by Pellegrino.

Pellegrino dumped Diaz at will and hammered punches and elbows inside Diaz’s full- and half-guard.  Pellegrino passed to side control and pinned Diaz’s arms, hammering Diaz’s unprotected face to open the cut.

But, durable Diaz escaped a lost first round.

The second round continued as the first, with Diaz getting dumped to the mat by Pellegrino.  This time, Diaz ran his guard up Pellegrino’s back and submitted the lightweight in a leg triangle at 3:06 of the round.

“He shouldn’t have pinned me down like that,” Diaz scolded Pellegrino after the hard-won “W”. 

In the televised card’s first fight, “The Assassin” Houston Alexander (8-3) got touched by “The Sandman” James Irvin (14-4) in the first exchange of their light heavyweight match.

Alexander was beaten to the punch by a right Superman punch from Irvin as Alexander launched his own right cross.

Alexander fell to the mat and Irvin followed with a right exclamation point to Alexander’s noggin as referee Steve Mazzagatti dove to Alexander’s rescue at :08 of the fight, tying a UFC record for quickest KO.

“I was still conscious,” Alexander repeated after the stoppage.

Amidst boos, Irvin challenged, “We can do it again right now.  If you want to go out into the parking lot, we can do it right now.”

 In untelevised fights, “The Dentist” Josh Neer (24-6-1) won a unanimous decision over “Dinyero” Din Thomas (20-8), who was returning from a knee injury in his last outing.

 ”Maximus” Marcus Aurelio (16-5) submitted lightweight Ryan Roberts (8-3) 16 seconds into the fight.

“Pitbull” Manvel Gamburyan (8-2) submitted Jeffrey Cox (9-5) in guillotine choke at 1:41 of the first round.

“The Carpenter” Clay Guida (23-9) TKO’d lightweight Samy Schiavo (10-5) at 4:15 of round one.

Finally, welterweight George Sotiropoulos (9-2) TKO’d Roman Mitichyan (5-2) 2:24 into round two.