The Ultimate Fighter 5 finalist Manny Gamburyan won his second straight fight for the WEC, defeating Leonard Garcia by unanimous decision after three rounds Wednesday at WEC 44 in Las Vegas.After three rounds, the judges rendered the fight in favor of Gamburyan with scores of 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28.
"When Rashad Evans said he hits the hardest. Guys, he does hit really hard!" Gamburyan said. "I survived today. He's a good fighter and hopefully we can meet up one more time."
Garcia clearly wanted to keep the fight standing and utilize his hard-hitting hands, while Gamburyan relied on taking his opponent to the ground. Garcia was able to land shots and thwart Gamburyan's takedown attempts in the first round, but the final two rounds went to Gamburyan for his dominant wrestling offense.
Gamburyan improved his record to 10-4, while Garcia fell to 13-5.
Meanwhile, Gamburyan's training partner and fellow Armenian, Karen Darabedyan, won his WEC debut over former WEC lightweight champion "Razor" Rob McCullough.
Darabedyan was not afraid to strike with McCullough and actually outboxed the kickboxer, landing bigger punches and opening a cut early on the bridge of McCullough's nose. McCullough focused on leg kicks, which Darabedyan had little answers for. Darabedyan slowed in the final round, but did enough to win the fight by split decision.
The final scores were 30-27, 27-30 and 29-28 to raise Darabedyan's record to 9-1 and drop McCullough's to 17-6.
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