Last night UFC 145 went down at the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. The card lived up to expectations and did not disappoint.
In the main event Jon Jones dominated Rashad Evans en route to a decision victory to retain his light heavyweight title. Rory MacDonald showed why many call him “the next GSP”, by obliterating Che Mills in the second round. Ben Rothwell seemed to have shocked the world and his opponent Brendan Schaub when he got the TKO victory at 1:10 of round 1.
Other notable victories on the main card were Michael McDonald KO’ing Miguel Torres, Eddie Yagin out working Mark Hominick and Mark Bocek decisioning John Alessio.
Below are some quotes from some of the winners of the main card.
Mark Bocek
when John took that fight on such short notice you use what you know; there’s not a lot of time to do research on your opponent and then retrain for it for either guy. Strategy is always a part of it but deploying the tools I knew from experience work is what got me the win. I want to thank my team out of TriStar gym in Ontario.
Eddie Yagin
Hominick is veteran and unbelievably bad ass. I was hoping I was going to get that fight with Mark and the fight was exactly as I pictured it. I thank UFC for the opportunity. Because Hominick was favored, and a UFC veteran, and I’m a rookie UFC guy, I’m pretty happy about this win.
Michael McDonald
This was the biggest jump up in competiton in my career and easily the biggest win. He caught me a couple times but my power and aggression won out. When he went out I was like `go go go go` and I finished it. I don’t know about my next fight but I’m ready for this level.
Ben Rothwell
he got a couple of quick shots through. I knew I would get mine. He started to come , in the beginning he was in and out but then he just stood there but I got him to commit and he came in with a couple of punches —and that was it. I started letting miine go at the same time andI was going to keep throwing. They always say it’s when you don’t expect to knock someone out when you do.
I feel good. My conditioning is great. I’d like to get three wins in this year.
Rory MacDonald
the media wasn’t giving much respect to my opponent so you look bad when you lose. I made some mistakes which is a blessing because you can learn from them. I just stayed on him, I knew he was hurt from the first ground and pound. He was very tough, hard to put away
Whenever I do something on the ground full power like that I know the fight is pretty much over. It took longer than I expected though even though I’m in good shape. I want to stay busy, I need to train properly, stay focused and continue to grow as a fighter. Three fights a year would make me happy.