Bader scores ‘Ultimate’ win

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With the exception of Saturday’s season finale, “The Ultimate Fighter” reality show finished taping about six months ago.

Ryan “Darth” Bader used that respite to improve his standup skills, and it paid off in the co-main event at the Palms. Bader used a big right hand to the head to drop Vinny Magalhaes at 2:18 of the first round in the TUF light heavyweight final.

Despite deflecting the blow with his arm, a wobbly Magalhaes (3-3, 1 no contest) fell straight to the mat. Bader (9-0) pounced and finished him off with six hammer fists to the head before the referee stopped it.

“It was deflected a bit, but I do have a heavy right hand and I felt I hit him pretty much square on the temple,” said Bader, whose victory also earned him a six-figure UFC contract. “It doesn’t really take much if you hit a person right there.”

A former football and wrestling standout at McQueen High School in Reno and an All-American wrestler at Arizona State, Bader said he has been working extensively on his standup skills.

“I worked on the boxing at Arizona Combat Sports and it paid off a lot,” said Bader, who pointed to his right fist in the cage after the victory as the crowd chanted his name.

In the other co-main event, lightweight Efrain Escudero (12-0) used his takedown skills to score a unanimous decision over Phillipe Nover (6-1-1) in one of the biggest upsets of the night in the TUF final.

Escudero dedicated the victory to his late father, former Mexican professional boxer Oscar Escudero, who died two weeks before the show began taping.

“From day one, I wanted to win this for my father,” Escudero said. “You could’ve thrown me in with “Rampage” (Jackson, ex-UFC light heavyweight champion) and I would have found a way to win. Just kidding.”

The “knockout of the night” on the 10-fight card went to Anthony Johnson (6-2), who avenged his earlier controversial loss to Kevin Burns (8-2) in spectacular fashion.

Johnson, who lost his previous bout with Burns after he was poked in the eye, knocked him out in the rematch with a perfect left kick to the head 28 seconds into the third round.

Burns dropped straight to the mat, where Johnson jumped on him as the referee stopped it.

In the first fight of the main card, controversial TUF 8 contestant Junie Browning (3-1) entered the Octagon to a chorus of boos, then submitted David Kaplan (3-2) with an arm bar 1:32 into the second round.

Wilson Gouveia (12-5) beat Jason MacDonald (22-11) via technical knockout at 2:18 of the first round.

Rolando Delgado (8-3-1) submitted John Polakowski (2-2) at 2:18 of the second round with a guillotine choke.

In other fights, Shane Nelson (12-3) secured a split-decision victory over George Roop (8-5); Tom Lawlor (5-1, 1 NC) took a unanimous decision over Kyle Kingsbury (7-2, 1 NC); Eliot Marshall (6-2) needed only 87 seconds to submit Jules Bruchez (0-1) with a rear naked choke; and Krzysztof Soszynski (17-9-1) submitted Shane Primm (1-1) at 3:27 of the second round with a Kamura.