Lightning didn't strike twice in the rematch between Gegard Mousasi and Uriah Hall at UFC Fight Night 99.
Mousasi, who had previously lost to Hall in 2015 via spinning back kick, avenged his loss by defeating Hall via first-round technical knockout on Saturday in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
The fight evolved mostly on the feet, and it was a fairly even bout. Mousasi landed a few solid jabs and leg kicks, while Hall also landed a few strikes of his own, including a scary spinning head kick that seemed to connect on Mousasi but not cause any damage. It all went south for Hall when Mousasi took down Hall against the cage, landing in his half guard. From there, Mousasi trapped one of Hall's arms and began to punish the unprotected Hall. The referee stopped the bout at the 4:37 mark.
With this result, Mousasi, who is ranked No. 5 in the 185-pound division, is now on a four-fight winning streak, with victories over Vitor Belfort, Thiago Santos, Thales Leites, and now Hall. On the other hand, the 32-year-old Hall is now on a three-fight skid.
In the co-main event, Stevie Ray proved that he's one to be taken seriously in the lightweight division.
The Scottish fighter defeated veteran Ross Pearson on short notice and looked very crisp doing it. It was mainly a striking battle between the two European fighters. The bout was competitive from start to finish, but it seemed that Ray would edge Pearson every round by either landing a takedown, or just landing a few more clean shots than Pearson. Ray defeated Pearson via split decision, and now finds himself with a record of 4-1 in the UFC. Meanwhile, Pearson is now 1-4 in his past five outings.
In the only heavyweight bout of the main card, former Bellator champion Alexander Volkov made a successful UFC debut, defeating Timothy Johnson via split decision.
Volkov had an advantage on the feet and was winning the stand up battle for the most part of the fight. But it was Johnson's grappling and takedowns that made the fight close, as he took down the Russian fighter a few times, and had a decent amount of top control. Johnson also had good moments on the feet, wobbling Volkov a few times, but that wasn't enough to get him the win in Belfast. Volkov is now 28-6 as a professional fighter, and serves as a good addition to the UFC's heavyweight division.
Opening the main card, Artem Lobov took on Japan's Teruto Ishihara. It was a fun fight full of action, with Lobov coming out on top in the end. Ishihara looked sharp in the first round, landing several leg kicks and staying away from Lobov's power. The Russian fighter didn't have too much output at the beginning and he seemed to have issues finding his rhythm. However, all that changed towards the end of round one and it carried on toward the other two rounds.
Lobov looked sharp and stalked Ishihara while landing hard shots on the Japanese fighter. With a unanimous decision victory, Lobov is now on a two-fight winning streak and is 2-2 in the UFC, while Ishihara is now 2-1-1 in the promotion.
Additionally, on the undercard, Zack Cummings, Kevin Lee, and Kyoji Horiguchi picked up notable wins.