Two Cuts and Alves stop Lytle; Lauzon wins on UFC 78 Undercard

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By Thomas Gerbasi

NEWARK, NJ, November 17 – The welterweight war between Thiago Alves and Chris Lytle lived up to expectations for the first ten minutes at the Prudential Center Saturday night, but two cuts suffered by Lytle prevented the final five minutes from being fought, allowing Alves to leave the Octagon with a second round TKO victory on the UFC 78 undercard.

“I can still see,” said Lytle after the stoppage. “Let it go.”

Alves agreed, saying, “I think they should have let it go on,” but with cuts both on Lytle’s brow and eyelid, Octagonside doctor Erik Wurmser had no qualms about advising the bout to be halted.

Lytle pressed the action from the outset as Alves calmly looked to counter. That opportunity came 90 seconds in when a left to the jaw dropped Lytle. Alves tried to finish the bout on the mat, but Lytle survived, albeit with a cut over his left eye. Once the fight resumed on the feet, Lytle continued to score well with combinations, but Alves also made his presence known with crisp counters that halted ‘Lights Out’s forward march.

Great back and forth action on the feet was evident throughout the second stanza, but by the second half of the round, Alves was starting to dent Lytle’s resolve with brutal kicks to the legs that were visibly bothering the Indiana native, who was also dealing with the blood flowing from the cut over his eye. Eventually, that cut, along with a second cut on Lytle’s lid, would be his downfall, as the bout was wisely halted on the doctor’s advice after the second round, much to the chagrin of the fighter and the crowd.

Entering the final round, Alves led 20-18 on one judge’s scorecard, with the other two judges seeing the bout even at 19-19.

“The fight was beautiful,” said Alves. “I knew he was hurt, his leg was messed up and he got two cuts on the eye so I was saving everything for the last round. I know I was going to catch him in the last round.”

With the win, Alves ups his record to 19-4; Lytle falls to 34-15-4.

Rising star Joe Lauzon made quick work of UFC debutant Jason Reinhardt in their lightweight bout, submitting the previously unbeaten Illinois native at 1:14 of the first round.

Meeting Reinhardt (18-1) in the middle of the Octagon, the two traded strikes briefly before the fight hit the mat and Lauzon (15-3) took complete control of the bout, eventually sinking in a rear naked choke that halted the bout in just 74 seconds.

“I felt good, I learned new tricks,” said Lauzon, who was coming off his first training camp in Hawaii with former welterweight champ BJ Penn.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ace Marcus Aurelio notched his first UFC win in his second try, improving to 15-5 overall with a first round TKO of Luke Caudillo.

Looking to keep the fight standing, Caudillo (15-9) was able to keep Aurelio at bay for the first half of the opening round, but with a little over two minutes left, ‘Maximus’ finally struck paydirt, taking his foe down and immediately assuming side control, where he pounded away with his right hand until the bout was halted by referee Kevin Mulhall at the 4:29 mark.

In the welterweight opener, Akihiro Gono showed that while it’s nice to be 21 years old, in MMA it’s better to have experience in your pocket, as the PRIDE veteran shook off an early barrage from Tamdan McCrory to tap out the previously unbeaten youngster in the second round.

As is his custom, McCrory came out swinging and took control immediately. Gono survived the early onslaught, and attempted to counter and pick his shots, but whenever the Saitama native settled into a rhythm, McCrory would disrupt it with a blizzard of strikes. With a little over a minute to go in the opening frame, Gono secured the first takedown of the fight, and within a few moments was able to use his veteran guile to work his way into side control just before the bell.

Gono picked his shots better in the second as he landed with kicks and then dropped McCrory with a left hook to the head. Once on the mat, Gono again worked his way into side control and then into the mount position, but as the New Yorker attempted to escape, Gono pounced and locked in a painful armbar that finished the bout via a verbal tapout at the 3:19 mark.

With the win, Gono ups his record to 28-12-7; McCrory falls to 10-1

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