Yahoo: Gunderson vs Oliveira UFC 108 results

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01-02-2010 08:58 PM:
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Trainer Shawn Tompkins yelled in the corner between each round, "How long did it take you to get here? Don't let this get away!" John Gunderson just couldn't put it together for himself or his trainer. He was too willing to go to his back against Rafaello Oliveira. The Brazilian controlled position on the ground and rolled to unanimous decision victory, 30-27 on all cards, to open UFC 108 at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas.

"It was frustrating not being to finish him," said Oliveira.

Oliveira said the fight meant a lot to him after sacrificing his holidays to fight at UFC 108:

"I didn't have a Christmas. I didn't have a New Year's. This is my Christmas. This is my New Year's.


Oliveira (10-2, 1-1 UFC) was just too slick on the ground for Gunderson. He mounted the American at least six times and worked from mount for over eight minutes during the match. Working an arm-triangle choke in the first, was the closest he came to scoring a finish. Gunderson (22-7, 0-1 UFC) did scramble well on the ground but did nothing offensively.

Before the fight, Gunderson spoke with a sense of urgency, saying at 30-years-old he needed to get in the UFC or it might be time to hang up the four-ounce gloves. We'll see if he gets another shot down the road. Gunderson got this golden opportunity because of a slew of injuries to originally scheduled fighters. This is one of the smaller crowds in recent memory at the start of a Las Vegas UFC event. It was pretty easy to hear the catcalls and cries of support from the 2,000 in attendance.

Kevin Iole, Maggie Hendricks and Cofieldhttp://twitter.com/maggiehendricks will be tweeting during the fights, and our tweets will be fed through here. If you want to join in on the chat, tweet from your account with the hashtag #CWufc108.



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