30°F
weather icon Clear

Las Vegan Mir stops Duffee in first round of UFC card

SAN DIEGO —€” Las Vegan Frank Mir spent all week labeling his former training partner Todd Duffee a bust.

Then Mir went out and broke him in the main event of an Ultimate Fighting Championship card at Valley View Casino Center on Wednesday night.

Both heavyweights immediately started launching haymakers from the opening bell. Duffee was the first to wobble, but quickly recovered and landed a few shots of his own.

Mir ended the slugfest when he landed a left hook as Duffee charged forward. An unconscious Duffee face-planted, and referee John McCarthy dived in to stop the follow-up shots and call an end to the fight at 1:13 of the first round.

“I fought a little emotional. I bit down on my mouthpiece, and I was going to swing for the fences,” said Mir, a former heavyweight champion said. “When someone‘s coming at you like a bull, you can‘€™t back up on them. You have to come forward.”

It was the second straight first-round knockout for Mir after four consecutive losses.

Women‘€™s bantamweight contender Holly Holm remained undefeated in her professional career with a unanimous decision over Marion Reneau.

Holm, a former world champion boxer, completely neutralized Reneau’€™s attack and patiently landed kicks and punches throughout the fight.

She appeared capable of stepping up the attack at any moment, frustrating the crowd with her somewhat tentative approach and drawing sporadic boos until a big flurry in the final 20 seconds.

“I‘m happy with the win, but I‘m one of those fighters who‘s never really happy with their performance. I showed a little bit more than I did in my UFC debut, but still not as good as it can be,” said Holm, who is 2-0 in the UFC and 9-0 overall. “I started putting things together that last round, just wish I started sooner. The strategy included shutting down my opponent’€™s strengths, which I think we did, just wish I was more aggressive. I‘€™ll keep working and get better.”

Las Vegan Kevin Lee won his fourth straight fight with a first-round submission of James Moontasri in a lightweight bout.

Lee needed 2:56 to lock in a rear naked choke. He had won three straight fights by decision since dropping his UFC debut.

“I knew what was going to happen before the fight started. I think everyone could see that coming. I can take down anyone in the division. I wanted to stand and strike with him,” said Lee, who has been working on his boxing at Floyd Mayweather Jr.‘s gym. “James is a top striker, and I wanted to show people that I could strike with him. But jiu-jitsu is the main part of my game. That’€™s four straight wins in the division, and I want a top 10 guy.”

Lightweight Tony Ferguson won his sixth straight fight with a unanimous decision over former Strikeforce champion Josh Thomson. Ferguson is 9-1 in the UFC.

“I feel pretty bad-ass right now. I got the chance to go out there and throw a lot of punches,” Ferguson said. “The fight tested my conditioning, as I haven‘t been to the third round in a while. I had a great time out there and hope the fans enjoyed it. Looking forward to what‘€™s next.

“This is the year of Tony Ferguson.”

Manny Gamburyan won all three rounds of a bantamweight bout against Scott Jorgensen, and welterweight Alan Jouban won a unanimous decision over Matt Dwyer.

Former Bellator welterweight champion Lyman Good scored the only knockout of the preliminary card with a second-round stoppage of Andrew Craig in his UFC debut.

Sam Sicilia, Jessica Andrade, Rani Yahya, Sean Strickland and Kevin Casey won decisions.

NOTE — UFC officials announced a flyweight title fight between John Dodson and champoin Demetrious Johnson will serve as the main event of UFC 191 on Sept. 5 at the MGM Grand Garden. Also on the card, rising women’€™s strawweight star Paige Van Zant will fight Alex Chambers, and light heavyweight Anthony Johnson takes on Jan Blachowicz.

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj

Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook.
MORE STORIES
THE LATEST
UFC-occupied buildings in Las Vegas sell for $23.6M

The off-market sale was brokered by Colliers and features two buildings which are 70 percent occupied by the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

UFC reaches $375M settlement in class-action lawsuit

The UFC reached another settlement with one of the two class-action litigants, agreeing Thursday to pay the former fighters $375 million after a previous agreement was thrown out by a Nevada district judge.