The On Deck Circle

It was week two of the semi-final fights, and I must say it was a fun but simple episode all about the fights.

This week saw two of the last three fights to determine who would compete on the season finale.

First up was Cameron Dollar from Team US vs Andre Winner from Team UK. The fight saw Andre Winner win due to the fact that he was simply better than Dollar in all aspects, his striking was crisp and he was able to repeatedly stuff Dollar’s shot. The end came when Winner was taken down but landed in the mount and rolled it into a triangle choke to finish in the first round.

The second fight was Ross Pearson of Team UK vs Jason Dent from Team US. I must say the editors fooled me this week. When we saw Ross dislocate his shoulder in practice and have it fixed Martin Riggs style, I assumed it would factor into the fight.

It did not.

Ross beat Dent via Unanimous decision, and just like Winner vs Dollar, Ross won because he simply seemed to be better at the entire game. Standing there were multiple exchanges, but Ross’ combinations were just a bit crisper and packed a bit more power. I have to say, Ross worked some fantastic body shots throughout the entire fight. On the ground Dent was able to work his way up for a while, but as time went on Ross simply muscled him back down and controlled him.

Dent did gain Dana White’s respect with the fight though; Dana stated that Dent did more to impress him with that loss than he did with his two previous wins. Dent explained that he had previously stuck to a conservative game plan to stay fresh for the semi-final.

And that’s it for this week; we will have an all UK Lightweight final, and Frank Lester may get some more teeth knocked out again next week. Check back here to see if he did, and follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/RaysMMAThoughts for all kinds of merriment and ballyhoo.