The Weekly Wrap: March 27 - April 2

UFC Fight Night: Gomi falls

The latest UFC Fight Night card on March 31 concluded with a sense that the game has passed by one of sport’s all-time great lightweights. Former Pride lightweight champion Takanori Gomi was outclassed by Kenny Florian before 7,700 fans at the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, N.C.

In perhaps the most authoritative fight of his career, Florian stunted Gomi with well-timed jabs to rack up points in the first two rounds. Sensing a shift in stance from the low-lying Gomi in the third, and after taking a stiff looping left, Florian hit a single-leg takedown and methodically snaked his way into a rear-naked choke for the tap.

Gomi, 31, allowed too many punches to land and showed limited submission defense in his UFC debut, longstanding issues that now hamper a fighter considered one of the game’s best in 2004 and 2005. The submission finish earned Florian the night’s $30,000 best submission bonus. The UFC collected $590,685 at the gate for the event. Florian-Gomi headlined a live Spike TV offering that served as an entrée to the season 11 premiere of “The Ultimate Fighter.”

The champion of the last “Ultimate Fighter” season, Roy Nelson, built on his fledgling notoriety with a sound knockout of Stefan Struve. The matchup was visually arresting considering the 11-inch height difference between the two. Nelson paid no mind to Struve’s 10-inch reach advantage, timing an overhand right to drop and stop Struve 39 seconds into the fight.

In addition to a $30K knockout bonus, Nelson earned big cheers when he rubbed his rotund gut in celebration following the win. Nelson grabbed some headlines for singling out firebrand boxer James Toney as the next opponent he’d like to fight. Nelson and Struve had to adjust to an extended delay as the lights went out during Bruce Buffer’s introductions, a UFC first. As order was being restored, the fighters were sent to the back, while Gleison Tibau’s first-round TKO over Caol Uno from the preliminary card aired on Spike TV.

In the other televised bouts, Jorge Rivera handed Nate Quarry his second loss via strikes, sharp-shooting his way to a second-round TKO at the end of a straight right and left hook, while TUF 9 champ Ross Pearson out-struck Denis Siver to a unanimous decision in a firefight that earned both competitors “fight of the night” bonuses.

Also picking up wins at UFC Fight Night 21 were Andre Winner (unanimous decision over Rafaello Oliveira); Jacob Volkmann (split decision over Ronys Torres); Nik Lentz (unanimous decision over Rob Emerson); Yushin Okami (second-round TKO over Lucio Linhares); Gerald Harris (first-round KO over Mario Miranda) and Charlie Brenneman (unanimous decision over Jason High).

The Spike TV broadcast of the event drew a 1.2 household rating and a two-hour average of 1.6 million viewers, according to Wrestlingobserver.com. It was a drop from the 1.9 rating the TUF 10 lead-in drew last September (Nate Diaz vs. Melvin Guillard main event) and the 1.36 rating for the season nine lead-in fights (Carlos Condit vs. Martin Kampmann main event).