Brock Lesnar beats Hunt in UFC return

Five years after he left, Brock Lesnar was victorious in his return to the Octagon as he claimed a unanimous decision win over Mark Hunt in the co-main event of UFC 200 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday (Sunday in Manila).

Lesnar has not fought in the UFC since losing to Alistair Overeem in 2011, and has instead returned to his old stomping grounds at the WWE.

Nevertheless, he showed that he still has what it takes, taking down Hunt twice in the first round.

In the third round, he took full mount and unloaded hammer fists against Hunt, who did just enough to avoid getting stopped.

"It took me a while to get acclimated," said Lesnar, who won his first UFC fight since July 2010. "I'm so happy to be back here."

Scores were 29-27 across the board for Lesnar.

In the undercard, UFC light-heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier defeated the legendary Anderson Silva via unanimous decision in a three-round, non-title bout.

Silva was fighting on two days' notice after Cormier's original opponent, Jon Jones, was pulled out of the card due to a positive test. "The Spider" did enough to survive until the third round, wherein he landed some significant strikes to the delight of the crowd, but Silva could not stop Cormier's takedown attempts.

Cormier won with scores of 30-26 across the board, and improved to 18-1 in the UFC, with his lone loss coming against Jones in January 2015. Silva, for his part, has not won in the UFC since 2012.

In another fight, Jose Aldo became the interim UFC featherweight champion after defeating Frankie "The Answer" Edgar in a five-round battle.

Scores were 49-46, 49-46, 48-47 for Aldo, who was fighting for the first time since he lost in just 13 seconds to Conor McGregor at UFC 194 back in December. It was also a repeat of his victory over Edgar back in February 2013, wherein he also won a five-round decision.

Aldo opened up a cut above Edgar's right eye in the second round, but "The Answer" refused to back down, even tagging Aldo with a combination in the third round. The Brazilian however landed the more significant strikes, and sealed his win with a strong fifth round.

Meanwhile, former heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez overpowered Travis Browne in the first fight of the main card, knocking out the former champion in the closing seconds of round one.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Frankie Edgar furious about possibly not getting title shot again

Former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar is not optimistic that he will be getting the title shot that was promised to him.

After the Ultimate Fighter 22 finale on December 11, UFC president Dana White guaranteed “The Answer” the next title shot at 145-pounds. It was after Edgar’s sensational first round knockout victory over two-time featherweight title challenger Chad Mendes.

At the time, Edgar was awaiting the winner between Conor McGregor and José Aldo, who were slated to battle it out at UFC 194 the day after his fight. With “The Notorious” emerging victorious, it seemed like a showdown between him and Edgar was the next move to make.

McGregor, however, went towards another direction and chose to face Rafael Dos Anjos for the lightweight title instead. Multiple reports have claimed that the UFC’s top management is leaning towards making this fight instead.

These recent turn of events have rightfully left Edgar in a state of frustration. During his appearance on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Hour show, Edgar laid out his frustrations in full detail.

"For sure, I’m pissed. I’ve been at it for a while now, I’ve been knocking on the door for this title shot for a while. It started with Cub [Swanson]. If Cub beat me he was promised a title shot. I beat him, I finished him in pretty dominating fashion and no, I’m not even considered for that title shot.”

“I take it in stride,” he added. “I do everything in stride, I really do think I’m a company man, but it’s not really panning out for me being that way."

Despite his sentiments, Edgar did concede to the fact that he is left with no other choice but to give in to the bosses’ decision, who at the end of the day, still have the final say on the matter.

"What can I do? Dana and Lorenzo, they know what I want, man,” Edgar lamented. “People are like, 'you need to call them.' They f**king know what I want.”

“What, am I going to bother them? For what? For them to say no? So they can promise me something one day and say no the next? Come on,” he added.

This story was originally published on the ABS-CBN Sports website.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com