UFC 174 Main Card Recap: “Mighty Mouse” & MacDonald Dominate, Arlovski Tops Schaub

UFC 174 is done and dusted from the Rogers Arena in British Columbia, Canada and it turned out to be another solid card for the promotion.

Headlining tonight’s main event was a flyweight title fight as the divisions reigning champion Demetrious Johnson took on the top ranked Ali Bagautinov. The Dagestani native put everything he had against “Mighty Mouse”, unfortunately for him it wasn’t enough as the champ took a straight forward decision win.

It was a striking clinic from Johnson who dominated his opponent for the full fight in the striking department, Bagautinov had some success with his grappling and was even able to land a couple of takedowns. But, it was nowhere near enough and D.J. took his fifth straight title defence.

The nights co-main event turned out to be a completely one-sided affair, as Vancouver’s own Rory MacDonald put in a flawless performance to down the surging Tyron Woodley. “Aries” completely outclassed the All-American for the entire fight, using a wide variety of strikes to keep “The Chosen One” at bay.

Woodley was simply no-match for the young Canadian and MacDonald now has back-to-back wins since his setback to Robbie Lawler at UFC 167.

In other action, Ryan Bader put together his second-straight unanimous decision in the UFC’s light-heavyweight division, taking out former Strikeforce champion Rafael Cavalcante. “Fejiao” was no match for the TUF 8 victor, who shutdown the Brazilian for three straight rounds to take the win with relative ease.

Former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski made his return to the Octagon a successful one, beating the No.14 ranked Brendan Schaub. It wasn’t his most impressive performance in the UFC but “The Pitbull” was able to control the TUF 10 finalist for the first two rounds to take a split-decision win.

The light-heavyweight’s kicked off the main card as Canada’s Ryan Jimmo took on Strikeforce veteran Ovince St. Preux. The fight was fairly close after the opening round, however, OSP upped the tempo in the second and was able to viciously crank the Canadians arm to get a verbal tapout just after the two minute mark.

UFC 174 Main Card Results:

Ovince St. Preux def. Ryan Jimmo via submission (verbal tapout) – Round 2 2:10

Andrei Arlovski def. Brendan Schaub via split-decision

Ryan Bader def. Rafael Cavalcante via unanimous decision.

Rory MacDonald def. Tyron Woodley via unanimous decision

Demetrious Johnson def. Ali Bagautinov via unanimous decision

Photo: Anne-Marie Sorvin for USA TODAY Sports