UFC 201 may be done, but it will be remembered for years forth as one of the weirdest nights in UFC history.

UFC 201 was being billed as the meeting place of teammates Robbie Lawler and Tyron Woodley. A ruthless champion would be taking on an unstoppable object, or however the UFC’s marketing department decided to sell the narrative. In reality, UFC 201 was an odd card from the onset.

Before injuries rocked the card, UFC 201 was co-headlined by Demetrious Johnson against Wilson Reis. What do Reis and Woodley have in common? Both men were viewed as relatively undeserving challengers for their weight class’s respective titles. Going into UFC 201 Reis was 1-1 in his last two, and Woodley hadn’t fought in over a year. When Johnson dropped off of the card, Reis was bumped to the prelims, and Woodley was left to carry the show with Lawler.

When all was said and done both men rose to the occasion, and their total fight time didn’t even reach one total round. What’s more, their finishes came from opposite ends of the combat sports spectrum. Due to their short, fantastic performances we’ll be taking a look at both men today.

Tyron Woodley’s Knockout

Woodley’s career has been marked by three things, unparalleled explosiveness, strong technical wrestling, and a tendency to fade in the later rounds. Luckily for Woodley, he did not showcase all of those traits last night.

From the get go both men’s game plans were clear. Lawler was going to sit on the outside, pick his shots and attempt to counter Woodley. Woodley was going to mix in level changes and feints with his boxing to keep Lawler guessing. At any sign of an opening, Woodley would look to explode with a punch, or a powerful shot.

One important thing to note is Woodley and Lawler stand in opposite stances. The opposite stance match-up means their rear sides are open, and more readily able to unleash strikes. When fighting someone that stands in an opposite stance, fighters will often move towards their own lead side because it will line up their power side with their opponent’s body. For Woodley this is especially important as his right hand has gotten him his most memorable knockouts of his career.

Below is the first real exchange of the fight. Woodley’s feints and creeping forward pressure already has Lawler backed up to the fence. When Lawler tries to bounce left or right Woodley shuffles in front of him while inching forward. As Lawler backs away from Woodley while trying to circle he moves himself closer and closer to the fence. With Lawler’s back foot nearly on the wall Woodley steps up his own left foot, cutting off Lawler’s escape route. Now Lawler can only move towards Woodley’s right. Woodley uses the position to throw a hard right hand that misses its mark as Lawler tries a left round kick.

Once on the fence, Woodley did a fair job of holding Lawler in place for a bit. It seemed as though Woodley was trying to wear out Lawler’s arms so the champion couldn’t box as well in the later rounds, if the fight was to go that far.

The finish came about a minute and a half later in the fight. Lawler again is trying to circle away from Woodley’s power side, but Woodley stops his movement by circling to his own left. Woodley steps forward while pawing and feinting punches. The feints do their job and Lawler reaches to parry a punch that isn’t there. Woodley throws a missile of a right hand and the punch finds its mark perfectly. Lawler goes out, Woodley pounces and the referee intervenes, making Woodley the new UFC welterweight champion.

Great stuff from the man many didn’t think deserved to be there. Woodley used a perfect game plan to take advantage of his athletic gifts, and the stylistic match-up.

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Wilson Reis’s Rear-Naked Choke

Earlier in the night was the meeting of grappling powerhouse Wilson Reis and UFC newcomer Hector Sandoval. Sandoval was doing his part to make the fight exciting but throwing wild punches at nearly every opportunity. Unfortunately, that wildness would be the beginning of his downfall.

Below Sandoval digs his toes into the ground and looks to throw an overhand right. Reis seizes the opportunity and shoots in on Sandoval’s legs. Immediately, Sandoval posts on his left arm, turns away from Sandoval and scoots his hips out to stand up. Reis hops up on Sandoval’s back, but only gets one hook in. When playing with one hook in, grapplers will usually shoot said leg in very deep while keeping the other one posted on their opponent’s hip to control them until they can secure both hooks, or a body triangle. Because of the one shallow hook secured during the quick stand-up, Reis has little control over Sandoval’s lower body. Reis wisely slides off while maintaining his over-under control on Sandoval’s arms.

Reis would go on to slam Sandoval back to the ground, but the UFC newcomer surprised everyone by scrambling out of back control and ending up on top. Reis’s hooks were loose after the slam so Sandoval quickly scooted his hips out to the side, and turned into Reis to secure side control. In bottom side control Reis quickly gains half guard and uses his right arm underhook to help elevate Sandoval into deep half guard momentarily. As Sandoval gets elevated, he elects to stand and try to get away from Reis, but Reis simply follows him up and drives Sandoval into the fence to prolong their grappling exchange.

Deep half guard is a powerful position as it allows the bottom fighter to elevate their opponent’s hips, lessening the effectiveness of the top fighter’s pressure. Without stable hips or pressure, the top fighter can’t get off effective punches, and if they hang out they will more than likely be swept.

Once they are back on their feet Reis secures a body lock with double underhooks, and uses an outside trip to get Sandoval to the mat. Sandoval again shows his back to Reis to try to escape, but the Brazilian gladly takes back control again. This time, Reis has both of his hooks in and he drives his hips forward to flatten out Sandoval. Reis then begins using his right arm to punch Sandoval into his arms.

From there Reis would sink his arms in around Sandoval’s neck, ending the fight with a rear naked choke. The finishing position itself was an odd one, as Reis was nearly on Sandoval’s side when the tap came.

Sandoval fought valiantly, but in the end Reis’ experience in the cage and on the mat proved to be too much for the UFC newcomer. In his post fight interview Reis called for a fight with Ian McCall. McCall has been a top flyweight for years, and he lost his own opponent for UFC 201, Justin Scoggins, to weight cutting issues.

I like the idea of a McCall-Reis fight, but if I was Reis I would have used the opportunity to hype the fight with Demetrious Johnson that was taken from him. As a fighter, you never want to miss out on the opportunity to fight for the belt, and Reis might as well try and start some type of spoken word rivalry to drive attention, and Pay-Per-View buys.

On Woodley’s end, he has a whole mess of a division ahead of him. Next in line for a title shot is Stephen Thompson, and after that is the winner of Carlos Condit-Demian Maia, presumably. All of those fights are fun and marketable, but Woodley has a different idea in mind.

At the post fight press conference Woodley called for a fight with Nick Diaz. What’s more Woodley wants Diaz at UFC 202 which is less than a month away. Woodley claims he wants to get a money fight, and a match-up with Diaz will certainly sell as a co-headliner on the Nate Diaz- Conor McGregor rematch card.

Woodley will mostly likely be medically cleared, as he took almost no damage during his fight with Lawler, but I doubt the UFC will give him a fight so soon. Still, crazier things have happened in the sport, Dan Henderson is getting the next middleweight title shot for crying out loud.

UFC 201 was filled with fast finishes and a lot of unexpected outcomes. Woodley’s victory over Lawler marks the fifth time a challenger has dethroned a champion over the past six title fights. The next champion up for challenging is the recently crowned heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic who is taking on Alistair Overeem. For more fight coverage and fight analysis, keep your eyes on Cage Pages.