UFC 122 REVIEW PART 5: OSIPCZAK VS. LUDWIG

NICK OSIPCZAK VS. DUANE LUDWIG

The fight starts out as a stand up brawl, but when Ludwig lands an early head kick, Osipczak immediately clinches to recover. Ludwig quickly breaks free, and lands a knee to the head and rocks Osipczak once again. Osipczak can really take since, after two direct hits to the head, he's still standing, though obviously hurt. In fact, he comes back and drops Ludwig with a left hook! Outstanding! Osipczak jumps on Ludwig and rains some ground and pound on him, but is unable to finish.

Duane Ludwig (left) vs. Nick Osipszak (right)

The second round was very similar to the first, except that the action seemed to have dulled quite a bit. No interesting shots were landed in the stand up war, and both competitors seemed to have noticeably slowed down. When Osipczak takes Ludwig down once again, he does throw a few shots, but is generally content in only controlling his opponent and not press the action.

Because of the way both round ended, I would assume that they both went to Osipczak. Hopefully, Ludwig's corner also recognizes this and tells him to push the pace so he can win this fight. Both competitors seem tired at this point, but there is something noticeably odd about Osipczak. He's just walking around, slightly hunched, with his hand down, and hardly does anything even close to fighting. Even more odd is that Ludwig is keeping his second round pace, despite the obvious weaknesses in his opponent: still pressing the action, but nothing that indicates that he wants to pull something impressive off in order to win the fight, even late in the round!

Duane Ludwig lands a straight left on Nick Osipczak

Interestingly enough, though, Duane Ludwig wins the fight via split decision (30-28, 29-28, 29-28)! Apparently, two of the judges thought that he pressed the action enough in the second round to award it to him.

The fight started off incredibly awesome, but dragged on a bit starting from the second, as the fighters began to gas. Still a good fight, though, and a pretty decent start for this new UFC event!

Check out more amazing photos of UFC 122 at the official UFC website!