Brenneman, Kongo win on UFC card
Lost in all the craziness of the last-minute main event switch to Sunday night’s Ultimate Fighting Championship card was the opportunity that was handed to Charlie Brenneman.
He took full advantage by ending Rick Story’s six-fight winning streak with a unanimous decision victory at UFC on Versus 4 in Pittsburgh.
And in a heavyweight bout that became the main event after Nate Marquardt was removed from the card, Cheick Kongo survived several big shots and recovered enough to land two big right hands to knock out Pat Barry cold in the first round.
Kongo appeared to be on the verge of being out but was able to land two shots as Barry came forward in his zeal to finish the fight.
Story, a late replacement for Anthony Johnson, was slated to take on Marquardt until just 24 hours before the fight. Marquardt was not cleared by the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission and was subsequently released from the organization.
Brenneman, who had lost his opponent for the event earlier last week when T.J. Grant was hurt, was on top of his game for the first two rounds. The 30-year-old, who grew up about two hours east of Pittsburgh, worked himself into top position on the ground and held Story there for the second half of the first two rounds. He was unable to do much damage, but Story could not work free.
Brenneman survived an onslaught of good positions and submission attempts in the third round to earn the victory on all three scorecards and derail talk of a title shot for Story.
Heavyweight Matt Mitrione improved to 5-0 by recording his fourth knockout against Christian Morecraft with 32 seconds left in the second round.
Matt Brown outlasted John Howard to win a unanimous decision in a welterweight bout.
Two former lightweights making their featherweight debuts had mixed results on the undercard. Las Vegan Tyson Griffin won a majority decision over Manny Gamburyan, but Joe Stevenson dropped a unanimous decision to Javier Vazquez.