UFC 105: Randy Couture Edges Vera
UFC 105 brought the Octagon to Manchester’s MEN Arena on November 14, 2009, with a veteran headliner and a strong British presence throughout the card. Randy Couture defeated Brandon Vera in a close light heavyweight contest, Dan Hardy beat Mike Swick to secure a welterweight title opportunity, and Michael Bisping recovered from his UFC 100 defeat with a stoppage of Denis Kang. The eleven-fight show mixed disputed scorecards with several clear finishes.
Video: the contemporary UFC 105 extended preview, introducing the matchups before fight night.
Couture returns to light heavyweight with a close win
Couture’s return to 205 pounds followed his heavyweight loss to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 102. Vera presented a different problem: a mobile striker with dangerous kicks and knees. Couture sought to narrow those advantages by closing the distance and working in the clinch against the fence.
The veteran’s pressure made long stretches of the fight difficult for Vera to open up. Yet Vera landed the most conspicuous attack of the second round, hurting Couture with body kicks and forcing him into survival mode. Couture got through the danger and continued trying to make the contest about close-range work rather than open-space striking.
All three judges returned 29–28 scores for Couture. It was a unanimous decision in official terms, but the fight itself was close and the verdict drew disagreement. Vera’s damaging strikes and Couture’s clinch control made the contest another example of how a result can provoke debate without changing the recorded winner.
For Couture, the victory put a difficult run at heavyweight behind him and reopened possibilities in the lighter division. For Vera, it was a frustrating loss against a fighter he admired, with enough competitive success to make the scorecards especially difficult to accept. The headliner’s importance came from that tension between visible damage and sustained positional pressure.
Hardy earns the next shot at St-Pierre
Hardy’s unanimous decision over Swick was the evening’s clearest change to the title picture. Swick brought speed and established UFC experience, but Hardy made the contest uncomfortable, landed consequential punches and competed effectively when the fight became less tidy. He won across three rounds instead of needing a single knockout to settle it.
The reward was a shot at Georges St-Pierre’s welterweight championship. The champion had successfully defended against Thiago Alves at UFC 100; Hardy now supplied a new challenger and a major milestone for British MMA. The title opportunity was the significance of this result, rather than a championship changing hands in Manchester.
Bisping rebounds and Brown stops Wilks
Bisping returned after his knockout loss to Dan Henderson at UFC 100. Denis Kang threatened to make the comeback a difficult one, but Bisping stayed in the contest and produced a second-round stoppage with punches. A recovery win in front of a home crowd gave him a firm starting point for rebuilding momentum at middleweight.
Matt Brown defeated James Wilks in the third round, spoiling the welterweight Ultimate Fighter winner’s appearance in England. Brown’s finish and Bisping’s comeback made persistence a theme on the main card: getting through adversity could create the opportunity to attack later. Ross Pearson, the lightweight winner of the same Ultimate Fighter season, had a better evening, defeating Aaron Riley when a cut brought a doctor’s stoppage in round two.
A busy preliminary card adds six more results
John Hathaway won an all-British matchup against Paul Taylor by unanimous decision, while Terry Etim submitted Shannon Gugerty with a guillotine choke. Nick Osipczak stopped Matt Riddle in the third round. Those victories gave the home contingent success in several different phases of the fight, from control over the full distance to a decisive submission.
Dennis Siver defeated Paul Kelly with a spinning back kick and follow-up punches. Alexander Gustafsson announced his UFC arrival with a 41-second knockout of Jared Hamman, and Andre Winner stopped Roli Delgado in the opening round. The preliminaries mattered beyond supporting the headliners: they included a notable debut and several finishes that gave this card its own character.
Complete UFC 105 results
Main card
- Randy Couture def. Brandon Vera — unanimous decision, round 3, 5:00 (29–28 on all three cards).
- Dan Hardy def. Mike Swick — unanimous decision, round 3, 5:00.
- Michael Bisping def. Denis Kang — TKO (punches), round 2, 4:24.
- Matt Brown def. James Wilks — TKO (punches), round 3, 2:27.
- Ross Pearson def. Aaron Riley — TKO (doctor’s stoppage), round 2, 4:38.
Preliminary card
- John Hathaway def. Paul Taylor — unanimous decision, round 3, 5:00.
- Terry Etim def. Shannon Gugerty — submission (guillotine choke), round 2, 1:24.
- Nick Osipczak def. Matt Riddle — TKO (punches), round 3, 3:53.
- Dennis Siver def. Paul Kelly — TKO (spinning back kick and punches), round 2, 2:53.
- Alexander Gustafsson def. Jared Hamman — KO (punches), round 1, 0:41.
- Andre Winner def. Roli Delgado — KO (punches), round 1, 3:22.
Sources
Article Tags
UFC 105, Randy Couture, Brandon Vera, Dan Hardy, Mike Swick, UFC Results
