Lackluster victory ‘hurts’
All wins are not created equal.
Mike Swick earned a majority-decision victory over Josh Burkman in the main event of an UFC Fight Night card at the Palms on Wednesday night.
But he wasn’t necessarily jubilant afterward.
“It was a big win because it was my first main event, but my performance was the worst I’ve had in winning a fight,” he said.
The fans in attendance agreed, as the fighters were booed throughout what was a cautious bout.
The response was something Swick could not block out.
“You can hear it, and it hurts,” he said. “I’m not the type of fighter that usually is in that type of fight.”
It was the first UFC fight for Swick at 170 pounds after competing for most of his career in the 185-pound class.
He said he was concerned with his ability to defend against takedowns at the lower weight.
But Swick was able to defend the multitude of takedown attempts by Burkman, a skilled wrestler.
Many times throughout the fight, the two just pressed up against the cage and the action came to a standstill.
Swick is known for his striking but was not able to generate much offense in the stand-up and instead just fought off repeated takedown attempts.
“I put too much emphasis on not losing the fight,” Swick said. “I thought in the back of my head that one takedown could give him the fight, so I was trying to avoid that.”
Swick won 29-28 on two scorecards, while the other judge scored the fight 29-29.
The 28-year-old, coming off the first loss of his Ultimate Fighting Championship career, said despite the lackluster showing, he’ll take the victory.
“I feel like I won the fight,” he said. “But I know it wasn’t my best performance, and I’ll take it as a learning experience.”
Patrick Cote’s victory Wednesday was much more decisive.
The Canadian scored a first-round knockout over an emotional Drew McFedries.
Since his last fight, McFedries had gone through a staph infection that kept him hospitalized for two weeks last year and the murder of his mother a month ago.
“I knew he would be pumped,” Cote said. “It was a very emotional fight for him.”
Cote knew something else about his opponent.
“I had seen in the fights of his that I had watched that he likes to keep his hands low,” Cote said. “So I was able to lead with the right hand.”
Just 1:44 into the fight, Cote stopped McFedries with one of those right hands, followed by a left that put him on the mat and against the cage.
McFedries covered up and Cote charged in with a flurry of right hands. Most of the shots caught McFedries’ elbows, but his lack of action prompted the referee to stop the fight.
Also on the card, Nick Diaz won by a first-round submission over Alvin Robinson, and Thiago Tavares won a unanimous decision over Michihiro Omigawa.
Las Vegan Gray Maynard won a unanimous decision over Dennis Siver.
Jeremy Stephens, Corey Hill and Kurt Pellegrino each scored second-round knockouts, and Matt Wiman submitted Justin Buchholz in the first round.
