By Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press
LAS VEGAS - Heavyweight Gabriel Gonzaga made short work of Justin (The Insane 1) McCully on Saturday night, winning by submission in the first round on the undercard of UFC 86 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.
Gonzaga (9-3) took McCully down with a kick, sweeping him off his feet, and then outmuscled him (8-4-2) until he tapped out to a kimura at one minute 57 seconds.
Gonzaga upset Mirko (Cro Cop) Filipovic at UFC 70 to earn a mixed martial arts title shot against Randy Couture. The champion smashed Gonzaga's nose early on and went on to score a third-round TKO at UFC 74. Gonzaga lost next time out, to Fabricio Werdum at UFC 80 in January.
McCully, a member of Tito Ortiz's crew, was coming off a UFC debut win in April over Antoni Hardonk.
The fights were on the undercard of the light-heavyweight title fight between Quinton (Rampage) Jackson and challenger Forrest Griffin, a 205-pound matchup featuring the coaches on Season 7 of "The Ultimate Fighter."
Jackson's basic purse was US$225,000 plus a $100,000 win bonus, according to the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Griffin's purse was $150,000 plus a $100,000 win bonus. The purses do not necessarily contain other bonuses included in fighter contracts.
Montreal middleweight Patrick Cote was featured in the co-main event, against jiu-jitsu black belt Ricardo Almeida.
Earlier, lightweight Cole Miller showed impressive submission skills, forcing jiu-jitsu black belt Jorge Gurgel to tap out to a triangle choke with just 12 seconds remaining in an entertaining bout. Gurgel did not go quickly, hanging on as long as he could with the seconds ticking down.
"Not bad for a purple belt," said Miller (14-3).
The two fighters had slugged it out earlier, with both men's faces showing the effects. A determined Gurgel (16-4) seemed headed for a win after taking a tiring Miller down several times in the third until Miller tied him up like a pretzel in an early contender for fight of the night. Two of the three judges had given the first two rounds to Gurgel while the third award the fighters one round apiece.
Lightweight Melvin (The Young Assassin) Guillard showed his knockout power by stopping Dennis Siver after just 36 seconds, hammering the fallen German with a string of punches to the face after flooring him with a right.
Guillard, who had lost his last two UFC fights in the first round to Rich Clementi and Joe Stevenson, almost ended the bout as soon as it started, crumpling Silver at the fence. Silver (11-6) survived the initial onslaught but didn't last long in face of a rampant Guillard (40-8-3).
Lightweight Justin Buchholz took advantage of Corey Hill's inexperience, reversing a ground position to win by rear naked choke at 3:57 of the second round. The six-foot-four Hill (2-1) was an awkward opponent and used his reach to hurt Buchholz in winning the first round. But Hill was hurt by a kick to the head in the second round and eventually paid for an error on the ground against Buchholz (9-2) after an energetic nine minutes.
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