George Sotiropoulos remains unbeaten in the UFC with a win over Joe Lauzon
George Sotiropoulos continued his unbeaten streak in the Ultimate Fighting Championships with a submission victory over Joe Lauzon over the weekend. The victory at UFC 123 was the seventh
in a row in the UFC for Sotiropoulos.
Lauzon entered the fight second all time in securing UFC fight night bonuses, accumulating three “Fight of the Night” awards, three “Submission of the Night” honours and one “Knockout
of the Night.” Lauzon’s last bout, a win over Gabe Ruediger, at UFC 118 in August of this year, earned him one of his “Submission of the Night” awards.
Sotiropoulos’ last bout was against Kurt Pellegrino at UFC 116 on 3 July 2010. Sotiropoulos took the fight via unanimous decision.
The first round started out with Lauzon firing some good right hands to the head of Sotiropoulos. Early on Lauzon’s punches came much faster than Sotiropoulos’ strikes. Sotiropoulos ate
a few punches before he went for a double leg takedown that was ably defended by Lauzon. Sotiropoulos did not quit on the takedown and he took some big elbows from Lauzon before standing up and gaining a body lock on Lauzon. Lauzon showed some strong wrestling
defence, as he was able to break the lock and forced the action back to standing in the centre of the Octagon. As the round progressed Sotiropoulos’ hands started to come faster, while Lauzon’s appeared to slow. The fight then went to the ground and after
some scrambling Sotiropoulos was able to get half guard on Lauzon. The ground fight did not last long as Sotiropoulos was able to get to his feet and gain a single leg takedown. After some grappling, Sotiropoulos gained full mount and went for an armbar that
slipped out and Lauzon was able break free and land some elbows as the bell sounded.
The second round started out with Sotiropoulos looking fresher than Lauzon and more confident in his strikes as the fighters traded punches in the centre of the cage. Sotiropoulos was
able to get Lauzon against the cage and worked another failed takedown attempt before taking the fight back to striking. Sotiropoulos used some strikes and then delivered knees while in a Muay Thai clinch. Sotiropoulos next took Lauzon to the ground and moved
from side mount to a north-south mount. While in the north-south mount he began to work a kimura on the right arm of Lauzon, he transitioned from the kimura to an arm bar attempt that failed. When Sotiropoulos missed the arm bar, Lauzon had an opening and
could have regained his feet, but he appeared too tired to react and Sotiropoulos was able to take Lauzon’s back. Sotiropoulos was then able to get another north-south mount and he locked on the kimura and cranked Lauzon’s left arm behind him and applied enough
pressure to force Lauzon to tap at the 2:43 mark of the second round.
After the fight, Sotiropoulos and Lauzon were awarded “Fight of the Night” and each fighter received an $80,000 bonus.
After the fight, UFC president Dana White said, “He(Sotiropoulos) looked great. I loved that fight. I don’t know if anybody heard. I was calling that ‘Fight of the Night’ before it even
happened and it was. I love these fights that are these incredible ground games.”
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