UFC Fight Night 41 Recap: Gegard Mousasi Finishes Mark Munoz In The First
The first card in a historic day for the UFC is in the books and what an event it turned out to be.
UFC Fight Night 41 took place in the 02 World Berlin in Berlin, Germany. The main event featured a pivotal battle in the middleweight division as Gegard Mousasi took on Mark Munoz.
“The Filipino Wrecking Machine” was no match for “The Dreamcatcher,” who dominated him all over with his striking while reversing Munoz’s takedown attempts to end up on top. Then in the later stages of the round, Mousasi managed to up the tempo and reverse a shot to end up in mount before locking in a submission.
In the co-main event C.B. Dollaway picked up the biggest win of his MMA career taking a fairly straight-forward unanimous decision over Francis Carmont. “Limitless” came out strong early landing some hard body kicks on his opponent but C.B evened things out getting the fight down multiple times.
On the ground Carmont was unable to amount much offence and struggled getting back to his feet. With the win Dollaway is now 4-1 in his last five with his only loss bring a controversial split-decision to Tim Boetsch.
In the battle of the undefeated middleweights, Sean Strickland managed to maintain his perfect record. The California native moved to 14-0 in his MMA career after taking a close split-decision over the Brit. Despite being fairly inactive, Strickland still managed to do most of the damage in the fight, avoiding the Brits strikes while landing shots of his own.
The featherweights kicked off the main card as Sweden’s Niklas Backstrom took on Finland’s Tom Niinimaki. Both men came out firing, but it was Niinimaki who took control early using his grappling skills to get the fight to the mat. He was unable to keep his opponent down, however, which cost him dearly. Backstrom landed a huge knee before finishing the fight with a ninja choke.
UFC Fight Night 41 Main Card Results:
Niklas Backstrom def. Tom Niinimaki via submission (rear-naked choke) Round 1 – 4:15
Sean Strickland def. Luke Barnett via split-decision
C.B. Dollaway def. Francis Carmont via unanimous decision
Gegard Mousasi def. Mark Munoz via submission (rear-naked choke) Round 1 – 3:50
