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UFC Fight for the Troops 2 is in the books and it produced one immediate title contender at featherweight and moved a lightweight a lot closer to a title shot. Full results can be found here – read on for a full analysis of how the fights affected the FIGHT! Rankings.
In the night’s main event, a resurgent Melvin Guillard downed hot prospect Evan Dunham with a first round flurry, moving from #16 to #8 in our Lightweight Rankings. Dunham takes his first real loss in the Octagon and falls from #19 to #42. In other lightweight action, Cole Miller lost his tenuous grip on the top 10 after losing a unanimous decision to Matt Wiman. Miller falls from #9 to #28 in the polls, while Wiman moves into the top 20, leaping from #38 to #13. The Cody McKenzie Hype Machine – largely fueled by the confident fighter himself – came to an abrupt halt last night as the unranked fighter was choked unconscious by grizzled UFC, PRIDE, WEC, EliteXC, and bodogFight veteran Yves Edwards. Edwards strings together consecutive wins in the UFC for the first time since 2004 and jumps from #53 to #20. In the night’s only other lightweight bout Waylon Lowe took a decision over former Shooto Welterweight Champion Willamy Freire and climbed from #94 to #46 in the Lightweight Rankings. Freire crashes from #57 to #107.
At the other end of the spectrum, Matt Mitrione retained his ranking – #25 in the heavyweight poll – with a stoppage win over Tim Hague, who hung tight at #88. In the only other heavyweight tilt on the card, Pat Barry climbed from #58 to #40 with a decision win over Joey Beltran, who falls from #46 to #67.
Mark Hominick had the opportunity to become the top featherweight contender last night and he took it, finishing George Roop quickly and moving from #15 to #7 in the Featherweight Rankings. Roop falls from #29 to #42. Barring injury, Hominick will face UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo at UFC 129 in Toronto.
Former WEC Featherweight Champion Mike Thomas Brown continued his fall, losing to Rani Yahya and dropping from #20 to #50. Yahya moves up from Bantamweight, where he was ranked #43, and is installed at #28 in our Featherweight poll.
At welterweight, DaMarques Johnson made a move towards divisional relevance, jumping from #75 to #58 in our Welterweight Rankings with a win over
Mike Guymon, who falls from #126 to #149. Charlie Brenneman actually lost ground – #64 to #66 – slipping from with his decision win over unranked Amilcar Alves.
Only one fight on the card was contested at 135 pounds, and Chris Cariaso won it over Will Campuzano by unanimous decision. Cariaso sits tight at #26 in our Bantamweight Rankings, while Campuzano actually gains ground, sliding up from #61 to #60.
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