UFC 119 recap: Chris Lytle outboxes Matt Serra to take decision
Chris Lytle took a decision victory over Matt Serra on the main card of UFC 119 in Indianapolis, outboxing the fighter over three rounds to win convincingly. Lytle was the home-town favourite,
as he serves as a firefighter for the Indianapolis Fire Department full-time,
and managed to thrill the crowd by avenging an earlier loss over Serra.
In late 2006 Serra and Lytle faced off in the octagon for the welterweight finale of “The Ultimate Fighter 4: The Comeback” on Spike TV. Season four of the popular television program
featured established Ultimate Fighting Championship fighters that had yet to win a UFC title. Serra defeated Lytle via a split decision. With the victory he was awarded a $100,000 UFC contract and a title fight against Georges St. Pierre.
Since his loss to Serra, Lytle has competed in 11 UFC fights and compiled a record of 7-4.
In contrast, Serra has fought only four times, one of those fights being a victory over St. Pierre for the UFC welterweight belt, which Serra lost in a subsequent rematch.
Saturday's bout began with the fighters exchanging punches in the centre of the octagon; Serra concentrating on body blows while Lytle went for the head. Lytle cut Serra over the eye,
but other than that damage, it appeared that neither fighter really wanted to commit to an all out brawl.
When the bell sounded to end the round the fighters met in the middle of the octagon and slapped gloves.
Round two began with Lytle catching Serra with some solid punches, but Serra recovered and returned the favour, tagging Lytle with some punches of his own.
With the fighters circling each other, Lytle was clearly looking to land a big right hand but could not find the timing or the opening to deliver an effective strike to Serra.
As the round continued it become clear that Lytle had the upper hand, but took some hard shots and kept coming at Lytle.
Between rounds two and three, Serra’s corner implored their fighter to deliver something other than the toe to toe fight that Serra had been bringing to that point. It appeared that the
corner could clearly see that a stand up fight with Lytle was a losing proposition for their fighter.
As round three began, the fighters, in a show of respect, met in the centre of the octagon and briefly embraced.
Serra and Lytle once again circled each other and it was all striking. Lytle briefly lost his footing and slipped, at that point Serra rushed in, but Lytle was able to recover enough to
tag Serra with a hard punch.
Serra appeared gassed as the fight came to an end. Serra's face was a collection of bumps and cuts while Lytle looked fairly fresh and relatively unmarked.
The fight went to the cards and all three judges agreed that Lytle (30-17-5 MMA, 9-9 UFC) had clearly dominated Serra (11-7 MMA, 7-7 UFC) as they award him the unanimous decision. All
three judges scored the fight 30-27.
Tags: