NEWCASTLE, England — Canadian Sam (Hands of Stone) Stout evened his record at 2-2 in the UFC with a comfortable decision over outmatched Swede Per Eklund on Saturday.
The lightweight mixed martial arts bout at the Metro Radio Arena opened the UFC 80: Rapid Fire card, topped by B.J. Penn-Joe Stevenson's showdown for the lightweight title.
The UFC came to Tyneside in a bid to build on its European audience and reward what is seen as a thriving pocket of fight fans.
But the show was largely ignored by local media in the days leading up to the fight, as all eyes were on the reappointment of Kevin Keegan as manager of Newcastle United. The Magpies hosted Bolton Wanderers the same time as the UFC show.
Eklund, who fell to 14-3-1 in his UFC debut, really had no answers for Stout (also 14-3-1).
Two of the judges scored the bout 30-27 for Stout while one had it 29-27 for the Canadian.
The Swede tired before Stout's standup onslaught and quickly ran out of ideas when Stout defended his takedowns and eluded any submission attempts. The only difficulty Stout had was when the drawstrings of his shorts came loose and the referee had to tie them back up again.
It was a tough night for the Swede who was booed repeatedly for staying on his back in a defensive shell while the Canadian waited for him to get back up.
“My game plan if it hit the ground was to get back on my feet, protect my arms and not get caught in anything stupid,” said Stout.
The 23-year-old from London, Ont., was coming off losses in the UFC to Spencer Fisher and Kenny Florian. Both were entertaining performances and the Canadian's standing in the UFC remains high.
The preliminary card was a disappointment, with the exception of a high-tempo all-English welterweight affair between Paul Kelly and Paul Taylor.
Kelly improved to 8-0 by using his wrestling and ground-and-pound skills to keep a game Taylor on his back and win by decision. Taylor opened the fight punching like a machine gun but eventually was controlled by Kelly, who carved open a nasty cut on Taylor's forehead with an elbow at end of the second round.
Dutch kickboxer Antoni Hardonk won by TKO after just 17 seconds when he floored 39-year-old heavyweight Colin Robinson of Northern Ireland with a left to the chin after softening him up with a few leg kicks.
And light-heavyweight Alessio Sakara needed just 90 seconds to end James Lee's UFC debut via TKO.
Sakara. whose lone win in his last four UFC fights was a TKO over Edmonton's Victor Valimaki, said after the bout he is moving down to middleweight to campaign at 185 pounds.
