After five grueling rounds, Bobby Southworth (Pictures) earned a hard-fought unanimous decision (50-45, 50-46 and 49-46) over the very crafty Vernon White.
Duane Ludwig (Pictures) and Tony Fryklund (Pictures) put on a striking display that electrified the HP Pavilion crowd from start to finish. Ludwig was backpedaling early in the first as Fryklund stalked him, firing away as he moved forward.
After picking himself up off the mat, a result of a slip as Fryklund pushed his way out of a clinch, “Bang” began an assault that never let up until the bell sounded to end the first stanza. He scored with a nice one-two as well as a handful of hard shots to the body.
Fryklund showed a ton of heart while absorbing the pounding he took, and he still answered the bell for the second round. Round two was along the same lines as the end of the first, with Ludwig dishing and Fryklund taking the punishment.
Fryklund seemed to have gained the takedown he desired since the fight began but Ludwig was able to stay on his feet. That spelled disaster as “Bang” landed a pair of high kicks that left Fryklund severely wobbled. Ludwig followed some brief ground with a devastating knee just moments after Fryklund had escaped to his feet that ended the fight for good giving him the knockout win at 3:37 of the second round.
Eugene Jackson (Pictures) took to the cage in search of the Strikeforce U.S. middleweight title. Standing in his way was the always-durable Ron Jhun.
It didn’t take “The Wolf” long to find his range as he sent Jhun careening to the canvas after the opening exchange of the fight. Jackson quickly mounted “The Machine Gun” and did a little rapid fire drill of his own, peppering the Hawaiian with strikes that eventually forced Jhun to give up his back. From there, Jackson was able to sink his hooks and elicit the tapout via rear-naked choke at 2:01 of the first round.
Paul Buentello (Pictures), fresh off a knockout win over the venerable “Tank” Abbot, returned to the Strikeforce cage to square off against resident last minute replacement Ruben Villareal (Pictures). Buentello came out slinging leather early but could not land the finishing blow against his durable opponent.
The second round saw Buentello redouble his efforts to finish the fight against a man who took the bout on only three days notice. “The Head Hunter” closed out Villareal with a vicious one-two combination that forced “Warpath” back into the cage, where Buentello ended the affair with another flurry of strikes.
A towel tossed from Villareal’s corner came flying into the cage just as referee Dean waved off the bout at the 3:57 mark of the second round.
Former WWE competitor Daniel Puder (Pictures) ran his unbeaten record to 4-0 in mixed martial arts action with a rear-naked choke victory over the previously unbeaten Mike Cook. Puder, who was making another step up in competition, took some punishment en route to his submission win at 2:31 of the second frame.
Rex Richards (Pictures) def. Kyle Levinton submission (keylock) 2:02 R1
David Smith (Pictures) def. Sean Bassett (Pictures) TKO (strikes) 1:36 R3
Scott Graham (Pictures) def. Drew Dimanlig unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27 and 30-27)
Anthony Figueroa def. David Barrios (Pictures) unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28 and 29-28)
Raul Castillo def. Andrew Montanez TKO (strikes) at 2:10 R1.