Diaz, Quarry among winners at Fight Night

On Wednesday, September 16th, the UFC held it's 19th Fight Night Live, airing for free on Spike TV. Ultimate Fighter season five winner, Nate Diaz and Melvin Guillard were the headlining fight, both promising to give one of the greatest fights of their career. With both fighters known for their trash talk, bragging rights were definitely at stake. However, before they met face to face in the octagon, two Ultimate Fighter contestants were set to compete.

Nathan "Rock" Quarry went up against Tim Credeur for the first televised fight. Quarry, who at one point in his career had to take time off for a spinal fusion, looked better than ever for this middle-weight fight. Family man, Credeur looked ready as well, and determined to give Quarry a knockout reminiscent of the KO he received from former middleweight champion Rich Franklin. Early in the first round it didn't look good for Quarry, with Credeur landing shot after shot, causing Nate to start bleeding from the nose. When the second round began Tim landing a head kick to Nate, causing him to be hurt badly again. Out of no where, Quarry lands a shot that took Credeur off guard and causes him to fall to the mat. Wasting no time, Quarry takes shot after shot, blasting Credeur. Towards the end of the round, Tim gets in a few good jabs, but not enough to take the round from Quarry, who was obviously dominant throughout the whole round. By the end of the second round, both fighters look worse for wear. The third round is just intense as the others, still going back and forth, but after the first minute, it is Quarry who is really out for blood. With a couple of failed submissions on Quarry, the round would eventually go to Nate, giving him the fight via unanimous decision. Both Credeur and Quarry, however, received fight of the night, and a few extra thousand dollars in their pockets.

Another very much anticipated fight was Roger "El Matador" Huerta vs. Gray "The Bully" Maynard. Huerta, fighting in the octagon for the first time since his unanimous decision loss to Kelly Florian, was convinced that we would be able to come back and get back on the UFC map with a big win. Maynard, who famously went for a takedown on Rob Emerson at the Ultimate Fighter Finale 5, knocking both himself and his opponent out, was looking to give Huerta his second loss of his UFC career. Huerta came out swinging and landing some great shots and combos in on Maynard. Maynard shoots and trys to take Huerta to the ground, but Roger is able to defend it and keep the fight standing. In my opinion, the first round was close, but Huerta clinched it with his great combos. The second round was basically all Maynard. Huerta did land some well timed leg kicks, but Maynard seemed to be able to answer each with a shot of his own. Unlike the first round, round 2 was obviously for Maynard. The third round seemed less intense than the first two. Each fighter was able to get in a couple good shots in on each other, but a couple minutes in, Maynard was able to take Roger to the ground and had him in a very deep Kimura and it was looking like lights out for Huerta. But after looking like Huertas arm was going to pop off, he was able to reverse his position and get out of it with what looked to be like great ease. Once they are both back up to their feet, Maynard gets Huerta down again, but just lays on him, holding him down. Nothing very exciting, but with Maynard not doing anything but holding Huerta down, its uncertain which way the fight would go. With leaving it in the judges hands, its always a risk. But when it came to it, Maynard would defeat Huerta via split decision.

The Diaz-Guilliard matchup was set to take place, and with the two staring each other down and not shaking hands at the beginning of the fight, it was obvious that both were ready to knock the other off their high horse. The start of the fight had Guilliard knocking Diaz down to the mat already giving him a cut above his eye. Diaz was able to recover a also throwing a few hooks to his opponent. Guilliard, however, was able to get a knee in and a powerful elbow, adding to the mess on Nate Diaz's face. Guilliard easily takes round 1. Round two looked good at the start for Melvin. He was able to keep landing shot after shot. But, Diaz was able to pull a guillotine on Guilliard and with every second it continues to get deeper and deeper. After a couple seconds in Diaz' grip, Guilliard taps and the fight is over. Submission of the night goes to Nate Diaz and now he will be able to talk about how he actually won a fight.

All in all this Fight Night was a huge success, with many people all over Twitter talking about it. Even UFC President Dana White, stated that these fights were some of the best on a Fight Night ever, and makes him really look forward to Saturday's fights. Hopefully UFC 103: Franklin vs. Belfort will be as exciting as the ones on Wednesday, maybe even better. Go Rich Franklin!!