UFC 104 Spike TV Preliminary Fights Re-Cap

UFC 104: Preliminaries
10/24/09
Los Angeles, Ca
Staples Center

This is live on Spike TV before the UFC 104 PPV. Lyoto Machida makes his first defense of his Light Heavyweight Title tonight against Shogun Rua. Cain Velasquez will try to stay undefeated when he takes on Ben Rothwell. We will have two live fights on the preliminary show. TUF Champ Ryan Bader will take on Eric Schafer and in a Heavyweight Fight we will see Antoni Hardonk versus Pat Barry.

Heavyweight Fight- Antoni Hardonk (8-5) vs. Pat Barry (4-1)

These guys are former training partners. Hardonk has a 5” height, 3.5” reach and 12 lb weight advantage.

R1- Hardonk doesn’t want to touch gloves to start out. Barry lands some strikes to start the fight. Hardonk lands some leg kicks. Lots of striking from both guys. Hardonk poked Barry in the eye a couple of times. Hardonk went for a take down and got stuffed and Barry jumped on top but Hardonk got up without taking any real damage. Hardonk’s nose has been bloodied. Good first round. I’ve got Barry taking it 10-9.

R2- Barry hit a good combo to start the round and then landed another good punch. Barry hits another punch and hits a leg kick and Hardonk briefly went down. Hardonk went for a take down but got stuffed. Barry is landing some really good strikes in this round and Hardonk looks to be fading. Barry landed a big right hand and Hardonk went down. Barry followed him to the canvas and quickly finished him. Really good showing by Pat Barry.

Winner: Pat Barry by TKO (Strikes) R2 2:30

Pat Barry gets a little choked up in his post-fight interview and then ends the interview with a back flip.

Heavyweight Fight- Chase Gormley vs. Stefan Struve

The broadcast kind of awkwardly moves into this fight as they were talking about Bader and Schafer and all of a sudden this fight (which was taped previously) is starting on my TV.

R1- Struve is 6’11” and has a huge height advantage. Gormley got a take down and landed some Ground and Pound. Struve went for a leg lock and Gormley grabbed an ankle lock. Struve rolled over and went for a heel hook. Struve is able to turn Gormley over and takes his guard. Struve landed some good Ground and Pound. Struve got a triangle choke and Gormley tapped out. Good fight and finish from Struve.

Winner: Stefan Struve by Submission (Triangle Choke) R1 4:04

Light Heavyweight Fight-Ryan Bader (10-0) vs. Eric Schafer (13-3-2)

Schafer is a BJJ Black Belt and will be Bader’s toughest fight to date. Bader is coming off of some leg injuries from his last fight. CB Dollaway is in Bader’s corner. Hopefully he hasn’t been helping him with submission defense. Bader was the winner of TUF 8.

R1- Bader couldn’t quite find the range for the first half of the round but was swinging with bad intentions on a lot of his punches. Bader connected solidly with a big right hand and Schafer went down and Bader connected with a couple of punches on the way down and followed Schafer to the mat. Schafer tried to catch Bader in his guard but Bader picked him up and slammed him and then landed some punches from behind. They got to their feet and Bader continued to land some good shots and Schafer went down again. Schaefer recovered well and went for a kimura but could not get it and Bader took his guard. Schafer grabbed another submission but couldn’t clamp it in. Very impressive first round for Bader but he would be wise to stay off the ground with Schafer. Borderline 10-8 round but Schafer did pull off a couple of submission attempts.

R2- Bader looks like he expended a lot of energy in the first round and Schafer has his wits back. Schafer is landing some punches and could take this round. Close round, Schafer probably took this round.

R3- Bader hit a big right hand about half way through the first minute. Bader jumped on top and tried to finish but Schafer clinched him up in his guard. Bader gets out and gets back to his feet. Schafer has blood running down his face and the ref stops to have the doc look at the cut. Bader got a take down with about a minute left in the fight. Bader takes this round and will take the fight 29-28 in my book. Good fight. Bader is very explosive but definitely needs to work on expanding his offense past just the overhand right.

Judges score cards say: 30-27, 29-26 and 30-27. 29-26 is a really interesting score. That means that judge gave Bader two 10-8 rounds.

Winner: Ryan Bader by Decision (Unanimous)

Joe Rogan and Dana White talk about the PPV tonight to close out the show.