Diaz submits Miller at UFC on FOX
Nate Diaz used a guillotine choke to submit Jim Miller in the second round of the UFC on FOX main event at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, N.J., on Saturday night.
Diaz, who had taunted Miller much of the lightweight bout, first applied the choke with about a minute left in the first round. Diaz further locked down the hold as Miller lost his mouth piece and appeared to be bite his tongue before tapping out with 52 seconds left in the second round of a fight scheduled for five rounds. The loss was the first for Miller that didn't come by decision.
“The whole time I kind of realized he (wasn’t) hurting me,” Diaz said. “I never was like, ‘Oh, this is it.’ He did sock me right in the eye at the beginning and it was blurry for a half a second. As soon as I could see again, I was alright.”
Diaz used a straight left to drop Miller with 45 second left in the first round. Miller gathered himself quickly, however, and had Diaz in a choke hold for a few seconds, although Diaz escaped before the first round expired.
“I put the work in and trained hard,” Diaz said on FUEL TV. “I just went out there and fought how I trained. I tried to make it happen.”
Miller’s seven-match winning streak came to an end with a loss via decision to Benson Henderson last August. Miller rebounded with a victory over Melvin Guillard on a first-round submission in the first UFC on FX in January.
Diaz, who won the fifth season of "The Ultimate Fighter," entered on a two-fight win streak after a lackluster venture into welterweight where he lost consecutive fights to Rory MacDonald and Dong Hyun Kim.
The winner of the main event appears to have a long wait before a chance at the title, although the victory didn't guarantee a shot. FUEL TV's Ariel Helwani reported Friday that the Henderson vs. Frankie Edgar rematch won’t come until after August.
“Let’s get Ben Henderson,” Diaz said. “Let’s speed up the process a little bit and make that title fight happen.”
Miller agreed with his opponent's feelings.
"He deserves that shot," Miller said. "There shouldn't be any (more) steps in his way to that title run."
In the co-main event, Johny Hendricks pulled out a split-decision win over Josh Koscheck in a close welterweight battle.
Koscheck seemed to have Hendricks hurt early in the first round, but couldn't take advantage. They traded some big shots in the second round, with Hendricks' powerful left hand doing serious damage to Koscheck's right eye. In the third round, Hendricks successfully took Koscheck to the ground for the fight's first takedown. But Hendricks was the more active fighter in moving to 8-1 (13-1 overall) in his UFC career. Koscheck fell to 15-6 (17-6 overall) in the Octagon, one of few to have more than 20 career UFC fights.
Alan Belcher survived the powerful ground attack of Rousimar Palhares in their middleweight bout and came away with a TKO win at 4:18 of the first round. Palhares, known for his leg-based submissions, had Belcher where he wanted him, but Belcher fouth his way out of danger and ended the bout by raining blows down on Palhares' face.
And in the first bout of the main card, heavyweight Lavar Johnson turned up the heat late in the first round and pummelled Pat Barry against the cage until he crumbled to the ground with 22 second left in the round. Johnson, who ended the career of Joey Beltran in this UFC debut this past January, improved to 17-5 with the TKO win over Barry.
The preliminary card on FUEL TV opened with Dennis Bermudez beating Pablo Garza by unanimous decision in their featherweight bout. Lightweight Danny Castillo followed that with a unanimous decision win of his own against John Cholish.
A catchweight bout at 127 pounds saw Louis Gaudinot rally in the second round to choke out John Lineker in the second. Gaudinot, hailing from nearby Hoboken, N.J., had trouble in the first round when his long dyed-green hair, which was tied back at the beginning of the fight, became loose and was getting in his eyes. After having it re-tied back in the second, Gaudinot was able to see better, and finished of Lineker in the second with a guillotine choke as the round was nearing an end.
Welterweight John Hathaway decisioned Pascal Krauss, winning the bout on all three scorecards (29-28, 30-27, 30-27). John Dodson beat fellow flyweight Tim Elliott by narrow decision in a close fight. And in the final bout of the preliminary card, Michael Johnson beat Tony Ferguson by unanimous decision in a lightweight bout.
In the non-televised preliminary bouts, Karlos Vemola opened the night's action by defeating Mike Massenzio by submission at 1:07 of Round 2 of their middleweight bout with a rear naked choke, and Roland Delorme submitted Nick Denis the same way with one second left in the first round of their bantamweight bout.
