Magny vs. Lombard highlights

Referee Steve Perceval was the least popular man in mixed martial arts after he allowed the UFC Fight Night 85 co-main between Neil Magny and Hector Lombard to go on a very long time. “He threw 100 punches before the ref stopped it,” is usual fan hyperbole, but Mangy actually threw over 100 punches on the ground before Perceval ended the fight at :43 of Round 3.

In his defense, Perceval also allowed the fight to continue in the first round, when many refs would have stopped it, in Lombard’s favor. Had he stopped it in the first, the sport would have been denied an early candidate for fight of the year. Further in Perceval’s defense, while Lombard was not employing much in the way of intelligent defense, at all, the strikes coming down were not vicious, so the danger element was not high.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FdGwS65nQg
‘Showeather’ launched a terrible storm on Magny in the first round throwing him around seemingly at will, and very nearly knocking him out. Magny showed amazing gameness, and seemed to recover some by the end.

In the second round, Magny was again dropped, but again survived, and then turned things around. His long limbs snaked up to a nasty triangle and then triangle armbar combo. Lombard survived that, but his heavily muscled frame was rapidly running out of oxygen.

The round ended with Lombard covering up and Magny landed over and over and over and over. The Aussie crowd, who love a good fight, were actually booing the ref for not stopping it. And Lombard has represented Australia internationally in Judo, and considers it his second hometown.

Magny ended it at :43 of the third round, and took home an extra $50,000 performance bonus. More importantly, Magny is now 10-1 his last 11 UFC fights. He won performance bonuses in four of his last six fights. Game beyond description, in 2014 Magny had five fights in the UFC, tying the record with Roger Huerta.

Neil Magny is a star.