The preliminary portion of the card at UFC on Fuel 7 is now in the books, highlighted by a scintillating fight between Tom “Kong” Watson and Stanislav Nedkov that saw Watson emerge victorious with a TKO.
In an action-packed fight, Watson dominated the early going from the thai clinch. But Nedkov was able to come back strong at the end of the round, flooring Watson and following up with a baragge of shots that nearly ended the fight.
The second round saw Watson go back to the clinch and wear Nedkov down with knee and elbow strikes. Nedkov kept trying to come back, but eventually ran out of gas and wilted from Watson’s attack, ending the fight.
After the fight, Watson called out all TRT users, saying “all I’ve got is heart”.
The prelims led off with a clash between Ulysses Gomez and Brit Paul Harris. Gomez started the fight with a brisk pace and was doing a good job abusing Harris’ legs with kicks. Harris was able to counter more as the second round wore on however. In between the second and thiurd rounds, Gomez’s corner man Gil Martinez informed Gomez that he would be calling for the takedown but didn’t want Gomez to actually go for it, in an attempt to freeze Harris. In the end, taking Harris down may have been a better option, as Harris continued to land in round three en route to a decision win.
Vaughan Lee marked the second Briton to have his hand raised as he outpointed Motonobu Tezuka. Tezuka threatened Lee in the second round with leglocks, but Lee defended himself well as Tezuka appered to gas out. UFC commentator Jon Anik intimated that Tezuka appeared to be crying in his corner between rounds two and three. Tezuka held Lee against the fence in round three but Lee was clearly doing more damage, earning him the victory.
Josh Grispi is likely out of the UFC as he suffered his fourth straight defeat, coming up short this time against Andy Ogle. Grispi had Ogle trapped in a triangle for the majority of round one but was unable to finish. From there Ogle dominated Grispi over the next two rounds and became the third straight Briton to taste victory as Grispi looked visibly dejected.
Paul Sass looked to make it 4-0 for the Brits but Danny Castillo had other plans. Castillo was willing to engage Sass on the mat and constantly defended Sass’ submission attempts and added his own ground and pound to the mix and earned the judges’ nod.
The prelim fights ended with Terry Etim getting back into the cage for the first time since January 2012 against unheralded Brazilian Renee Forte. Forte was the biggest underdog of the night, but consistently took the fight to Etim, flooring him in the second round and keeping the pressure on a clearly worn-out Etim in round three to score the upset decision win. Etim appeared to have suffered a leg injury in the bout and needed to be assisted by his corner leaving the cage.
