McFedries, Hazelett, and Lister Notch Big Wins Saturday Night

By Thomas Gerbasi

Middleweight Drew McFedries roared out of his corner at the start of his preliminary bout against Marvin Eastman Saturday night and he didn’t stop throwing until he had ended his opponent’s night, which came just 68 seconds into their bout at The Palms in Las Vegas.

“I couldn’t waste time with this guy,” said McFedries, now 7-3. “He’s so strong it’s ridiculous. I knew if I didn’t come out with something big, he was gonna take over.”

The action heated up immediately as McFedries attempted and missed a flying knee and was given a one way ticket to the canvas by Eastman (15-8-1) for his trouble. Both fighters immediately rose, and a McFedries leg kick was answered by an inside flurry from Eastman. After a very brief lull, McFedries hurt Eastman with a left hand and then opened fire. Eastman was game, but still on rubbery legs, and McFedries kept teeing off. Eventually, Eastman grabbed McFedries’ leg and tried for a takedown, but as he did so, ‘The Massacre’ landed a thudding right hand that dropped the Las Vegan face first. One more left hand and it was over, with referee Steve Mazzagatti halting the bout at the 1:08 mark.

After a somewhat erratic start to his UFC stint that saw him sandwich strong performances in defeat to Josh Koscheck and Tony DeSouza around three Octagon victories, welterweight Dustin Hazelett put it all together as he scored the biggest win of his career over Josh Burkman.

The end came via submission at 4:46 of the second round.

Burkman was aggressive throughout the first round as he tried to inflict punishment on Hazelett from his ground and pound attack. But this aggression cost ‘The People’s Warrior’ as Hazelett tried submission after submission in an attempt to finish Burkman off.

The pace dipped in the second round, with Burkman scoring with a takedown and some hard strikes that kept Hazelett off balance. But just when it looked as if the bout was going to go to a third round, Hazelett found his opening and locked in an armbar that forced Burkman to tap out with 14 seconds left in the stanza.

With the win, Hazelett improves to 13-4; Burkman falls to 20-6.  (Watch Burkman vs. Hazelett on UFC.com for Free right now, sponsored by Harley-Davidson,)

Grappling wizard Dean Lister evened the score with Jeremy Horn in their middleweight bout, avenging a 2003 decision loss to the Utah resident via a first round submission victory.

Horn (88-18-5) looked like he had things under control in the early going as he jarred Lister (11-5) while standing, scored a takedown, and resisted his foe’s takedown attempts. ‘The Boogeyman’ was persistent though, and he eventually got Horn down to the mat. After some ground strikes by Lister, Horn made his move to escape, but instead got caught in a guillotine choke that forced him to tap at 3:52 of the opening round.

It was a different day but the same result in the welterweight bout between Matt Brown and Matt Arroyo, as Brown stopped Arroyo in the second round, mimicking his November 2006 win over the Ultimate Fighter season six competitor.

Arroyo (3-2) started strong, controlling much of the first round action along the fence while also scoring a takedown and landing solid strikes that jarred Brown (10-6), a member of the Ultimate Fighter: Team Rampage vs Team Forrest cast.

Brown ended the first round well though, and he carried that momentum into round two as he started to land more and more on his opponent. And though you would think that the fight would favor Arroyo when it hit the ground, Brown’s ground and pound ruled the day, and after a crushing right hand, Arroyo was done, with the follow-up shots just a formality before the bout was halted at 3:40 of the second round.

Late replacement Rob Kimmons made the most of his opportunity against Rob Yundt in the middleweight opener, submitting the Alaska native to win his UFC debut and improve to 21-3.

Kimmons was looking for the finish as soon as the bout began, and he tried to pull off a myriad of submission attempts. Yundt (7-2) survived each assault, and had his moments on the mat, but eventually Kimmons got what he was looking for, and his second guillotine attempt hit the mark, forcing Yundt to tap out at the 3:58 mark of the opening round.

Watch the Unaired Prelims from the Ultimate Fighter Finale on UFC On Demand.........Click Here.