Mixed Fortunes For Boston Pair at UFC Fight Night 26

Surprise Loss for Lauzon, Whilst Howard schools Hall

by Tommy Strong @strong_tea



Saturday night UFC Fight Night 26 saw mixed fortunes for Boston's Joe Lauzon and John Howard.

Lauzon (22-9) renowned for his exciting style of fighting that has earned himself 12 bonuses of the night awards, equal with the legend Anderson Silva.

Lauzon came into the fight on the back of a unanimous decision loss to Jim Miller at UFC 155 on the 29th December 2012. Not only did the pair pick up fight of the night bonus, they were also awarded fight of the year 2012! Though it was Michael Johnson that had everyone on the edge of their seats. Being a 2-1 underdog going into the fight, not many had backed Johnson to pull of a win against the submission artist in Lauzon.

Johnson wasted no time in silencing the hometown crowd that were cheering on local boy Lauzon with jabs and leg kicks to keep Lauzon at range and stuffing any take downs he attempted. Over the 3 rounds Lauzon had no answer for Johnson's speed, landing at will with little or nothing coming back.

By the third round Johnson had broken Lauzon, leaving him clueless on what to do next! Johnson produced one of, if not his best performance within the UFC to take a one sided victory on the judges score cards, so much so one judge scored the fight (30-25).

Lauzon offered no excuses after the fight , saying he was 100% fit and healthy, had a great training camp and everything went to plan. It just wasn't his night. Handing every credit to to the winner Johnson. I'm sure this is just a blip in Lauzons career and he will be back in the style we have all come accustomed too.

On the flip side we saw Boston's John Howard returning to the UFC for the first time since 2011 having left a Welterweight, now returning inside the octagon as a Middleweight to face TUF 17 runner up Uriah Hall.

In truth the fight was a stinker! Which had Dana White commenting on twitter:

'HORRIBLE!!!!!!! The high 5 of the night WTF"

With so many eagerly anticipating the Hall that we saw in the TUF series knocking fighters out in style, hoping his loss in the TUF final to Kelvin Gastelum was just a one off. Though sadly it was much of the same.

Hall come out from the bell using his reach advantage to keep Howard at range, though going into round two Howard found his rhythm and showed better striking and wrestling skills to take the advantage over Hall who offered very little in return. The fight didn't get any better in rounds 2 or 3 where the crowd were getting restless and venting their frustrations with chorus of boo's.

Everyone was grateful to hear the final bell and see the fight come to an end. The fight went to the judges scorecards which saw John Howard take a split decision win (30-27-28-29 -29-28)

Uriah Hall is now (0-2) with the UFC and with his back really up against the wall if he wants to stay within the UFC.

Dana White wasted no time giving his opinions on Uriah Hall:

"I love Uriah Hall. I have a great relationship with this kid. He's one of the nicest human beings you can ever meet. He's not a fighter, man. If I could take Brad Pickett's brain and heart and put it inside Uriah Hall's body, holy shit there would be some damage done, because Uriah has all the physical attributes to be amazing. He's got speed, he's got power, he's unbelievable. He doesn't have what it mentally takes to fight here. You know what I mean? He was this killer on TUF, and then he comes into the big show where it really matter and this is going to make your livelihood and everything else, and he turns into a different person. This super nice guy. He was telling me after the Kelvin fight "I really like him, he's a really nice guy. Ok, well that really nice guy just took every fucking thing you ever wanted"

Is this the last we have seen from Uriah Hall?! What do you all think??