UFC 181 Results: Grades for Every Main Card Fighter
Perhaps the hottest UFC card of the year went down on Saturday night in Las Vegas, as UFC 181 offered up a pair of title fights and a series of wild finishes beginning on the prelims and rolling into the pay-per-view portion of the evening.
The title fights split for the champions, as Johny Hendricks lost his gold to Robbie Lawler in the main event, and Anthony Pettis bettered Gilbert Melendez only moments beforehand.
Overall, it was a solid night of action both on paper and in practice. Here are the grades for those who made it happen.
Tony Ferguson
1 of 10
Ferguson started slowly against Abel Trujillo, suffering a knockdown and getting repeatedly ragdolled in the first round. When Trujillo started to wilt, however, Ferguson capitalized and pulled away down the stretch.
He had an excellent second round and craftily finished with a rear-naked choke, providing another step in his continued, incremental growth as a mixed martial artist.
Grade: B+
Abel Trujillo
2 of 10
Trujillo rolled into the MGM Grand like gangbusters, mauling Tony Ferguson for the first round of their meeting at UFC 181. Unfortunately, he couldn’t sustain that pace, and within a few minutes of his hot start he was visibly laboring.
The second round saw Ferguson take over completely, and Trujillo couldn’t survive the stanza without being choked.
If he can harness that energy from the first few minutes, he’ll be a force to be reckoned with, but he’s still in middling prospect territory after his loss on Saturday.
Grade: C-
Todd Duffee
3 of 10
Duffee engaged a little on the feet and muscled around Anthony Hamilton for a half-minute or so and then landed a giant cross to put his man down for good.
There’s not much to say about it beyond the fact that it was a technically perfect punch that landed beautifully. When that happens and the guy throwing it is 250 pounds, someone is going to sleep.
It was a great return for Duffee after two years off, and he’ll likely pick up where he left off after such an explosive finish.
Grade: A+
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Anthony Hamilton
4 of 10
The less said about Hamilton, the better. He looked physically overmatched, not nearly powerful enough to handle Todd Duffee. He eventually woke up with a flashlight in his face after about 35 seconds of work.
It was a hard way to make a few thousand bucks on a Saturday night in Vegas.
Grade: D-
Travis Browne
5 of 10
Browne was reserved and relaxed in his dispatching of an overmatched Brendan Schaub, battering him on the feet and overpowering him on the ground. It was the exact type of performance he needed after losing to Fabricio Werdum earlier this year, and it showed he’s going to continue to push toward a title shot.
Scoring the finish with some savage ground-and-pound was also a nice change of pace, as Browne has been known as more of a kickboxer to this stage in his career. It’s clear he’s evolving as he gets deeper into the game.
Grade: A
Brendan Schaub
6 of 10
With his convincing loss on Saturday, the argument that Schaub is a better podcast host than he is a mixed martial artist might actually be legitimate. Travis Browne overwhelmed him, making him look slow and technically inferior on the way to stopping him from back mount on the ground.
All Big Brown can hope for at this point is that the sheer lack of functional heavyweight bodies in MMA will keep his job safe. There’s not much else standing between him and a roster cut come Monday morning.
Grade: D-
Anthony Pettis
7 of 10
Pettis had a hard time with Gilbert Melendez at UFC 181, struggling to keep enough space to throw strikes and getting dragged into a sloppy grind for most of the bout. However, he landed one right hand and took the challenger’s neck when it was there, scoring his second straight flashy submission from his back in the UFC.
People think of Pettis' striking and the flash he brings to cage, but he’s the total package. If he can stay healthy, there’s a good chance he could stick at the top of the lightweight mountain for a long time.
Grade: B+
Gilbert Melendez
8 of 10
Melendez fought a round-and-a-half of perfection before making a single mistake against Anthony Pettis, and before you could blink, it was all over. Off a failed shot, Melendez gave up his neck, and Pettis locked in a guillotine to secure the tap.
It’s hard to say it was 100 percent indicative that Melendez was totally outclassed, considering he controlled much of the fight, but at the end they don’t ask how, they ask how many.
This one is a loss any way you slice it.
Grade: B
Robbie Lawler
9 of 10
Robbie Lawler came out guns ablazin’ at UFC 181, setting the tone early and working to wrest the welterweight title from Johny Hendricks. At plenty of points in the evening, it looked like that wasn’t going to happen—such as when Ruthless was pressed against the cage or fighting off a takedown—but at the end of the night, he got the nod from the judges.
It’s the culmination of an incredible journey for one of the modern UFC’s earliest-rising stars—one that many would have thought possible when he burst onto the scene in 2002. No one thought it would take 12 years, though.
Grade: A
Johny Hendricks
10 of 10
Hendricks looked like he might have done enough to steal one in Vegas, landing thudding leg kicks for most of the fight and punctuating them with drawn-out grinding and wrestling. The judges didn’t see it that way, though, and sided with Robbie Lawler in the main event.
There’s a pretty good chance these two are going to do this one more time, though perhaps a fight or two in between would be nice for each athlete.
Regardless, UFC 181 was a pretty ordinary performance for Hendricks, and it could have gone either way. It just didn’t go his way this time.
Grade: B
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