LAS VEGAS — Court McGee’s inspiring life story likely hasn’t reached its culmination yet, but tonight’s Ultimate Fighter season 11 championship is a good start.
McGee, the seventh fighter picked by coach Chuck Liddell, submitted Kris McCray in the second round of tonight’s “Ultimate Fighter 11 Finale” main event to earn a six-figure deal with the UFC. McGee lost in the first round of the show tournament, but re-entered the tournament as an injury replacement.
McCray also lost his first-round matchup, but came back into the tournament by virtue of earning one of the new “wild card” spots. He made the most of it, fighting five times in six weeks to reach the finals.
He was overwhelmed by McGee during the fight, however. McGee proved to be too strong and too well-rounded, using takedowns and striking to dominate the first round. McCray was able to get back his feet after the first takedown of the second round, but McGee quickly took him back to the ground, secured his back and got the rear-naked choke for the submission.
HAMILL BATTERS BLOODY JARDINE
Keith Jardine was fighting for his UFC life against Matt Hamill, and it showed. Jardine used strong striking out of his unorthodox stance in the first round and looked to be outpointing Hamill. In the second round, however, Hamill opened up a nasty gash above Jardine’s eyes, and a torrent of blood poured out of his forehead for the remainder of the bout.
Jardine was also deducted a point in the second round for an accidental eyepoke that left Hamill writhing in pain. After a brief recovery period, Hamill began overcoming Jardine’s striking with a powerful striking game of his own. Despite breaking his left hand in the first round, Hamill began battering Jardine around the cage, walking through many Jardine-landed strikes and mixing in few but effective takedowns to score a majority decision victory.
Jardine’s performance could earn him another go inside the Octagon, but his four straight losses won’t help his cause.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Court McGee d. Kris McCray via submission,, round 2
– Matt Hamill d. Keith Jardine via majority decision
– Chris Leben d. Aaron Simpson via TKO, round 2
– Dennis Siver d. Spencer Fisher via unanimous decision
– Rich Attonito d. Jamie Yager via TKO, round 2
– John Gunderson d. Mark Holst via unanimous decision
– Brad Tavares d. Seth Baczynski via unanimous decision
– Kyle Noke d. Josh Bryant via TKO, round 2
– Chris Camozzi d. James Hammortree via unanimous decision
– Travis Browne d. James McSweeney via TKO, round 1