Mousasi submits Muñoz at UFC Fight Night 41

Gegard Mousasi took a major step in his prizefighting career as he submitted Mark Muñoz in the main event of UFC Fight Night 41 on Sunday morning (PHI time) at O2 World in Berlin, Germany.

The 28-year-old Dutchman forced the 36-year-old Filipino-American to wave the white flag at 3:57 of the first round with a rear-naked choke.

Mousasi, a former Strikeforce and DREAM light heavyweight champion, was astonishingly taken down by Muñoz in the opening moments of the middleweight headliner.

“The Filipino Wrecking Machine” appeared to be geared up for a fast start when he picked up Mousasi for a vindicating slam.

However, Mousasi managed to adjust in mid-air and ended up on top when both of them landed on the canvas.

While Muñoz looked to establish his wrestling dominance, Mousasi countered at every turn, clobbering the Reign MMA representative with punishing elbows from his sprawl.

After a failed takedown attempt by Muñoz, Mousasi rapidly placed himself on mount position and compelled his adversary to surrender his back.

Mousasi easily latched on a rear-naked choke to give Muñoz no alternative but to call the attention of referee Marc Goddard to halt the action.

It was the 27th first-round finish of Mousasi’s professional mixed martial arts (MMA) career, while Muñoz tapped out for the very first time.

“I worked a lot on the rear-naked choke and the guillotine. I set it up with punches, and I was able to get it. He’s a wrestler, so he always comes forward. I wanted to pick up the angles and slowly pick up the pressure,” Mousasi shared in his post-fight interview.

With his remarkable victory over Muñoz, Mousasi improves his MMA record to 35-4-2 and heads back into the winning column after a decision loss to Lyoto Machida this past February.

Currently ranked as No. 11 in the UFC middleweight rankings, “The Dreamcatcher” is expected to advance his stature in the standings after defeating Muñoz, who occupies the No.7 spot.

On the other hand, Muñoz has dropped two-straight contests and downgrades his win-loss card to 13-5.

Dollaway outpoints Carmont to enter middleweight top 10

C.B. Dollaway neutralized Francis Carmont in three rounds to earn a unanimous-decision triumph in the co-headliner of UFC Fight Night 41.

After absorbing a heavy right hand from his opponent, Dollaway was able to gather his wits and drop Carmont with a sneaky left hook.

The 30-year-old “Doberman” followed the knockdown with a flurry of punches, but Carmont survived the initial onslaught to regain his footing for the next round.

As Carmont started to obtain more control of the stand-up trade in the second stanza, Dollaway relied on his grappling pedigree to negate his French foe’s striking leverage.

Even though he was not able to inflict tremendous damage on the ground, Dollaway succeeded in taking out Carmont out of his game and controlled the pace until the final frame.

In the end, all three judges awarded the undivided verdict to Dollaway via 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 counts.

“I’m finally in the top 10, I believe,” Dollaway confidently expressed after the three-round encounter against Carmont.

In other matches, former King of the Cage middleweight titlist Sean Strickland handed British stalwart Luke Barnatt his first setback by split decision.

Two judges saw it in favor of Strickland with 30-27 and 29-28 marks, while the other cageside official scored it 29-28 for Barnatt.

Meanwhile, Niklas Backstrom kicked off the UFC Fight Night 41 main card on an impressive note, submitting Finnish featherweight Tom Niinimaki in the first round.

Despite not having his hooks fastened on his opponent, the 24-year-old Swedish fighter locked on a deep rear-naked choke on Niinimak, who was forced to tap out at the 4:15 mark of the opening salvo. – Rappler.com