Silva, Vera and Muñoz post wins

MANILA – Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) victors Randy “The Natural” Couture and Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira slugged it out until the third and final round in their UFC 102 headline fight.

It was Nogueira who emerged the winner by unanimous decision.

“Minotauro” now has a win-loss record of 32-5-1 while “The Natural” stands at 16-10.

The former UFC champions capped off the UFC 102 event held on Saturday (Sunday in Manila) at the Rose Garden Arena in Portland, Oregon.

In the co-feature, Thiago Silva shocked Keith “The Dean of Mean” Jardine with a first round knockout.

Silva, who now has 14 wins and one loss, defeated Jardine via knockout at 1:35.

The defeated, meanwhile, has a record of 14-6-1.

Filipino-Americans rule

Chris “The Crippler” Leben was beaten by Jake Rosholt by submission (choke) at 1:30 in the third round by arm triangle.

Nate “The Great” Marquardt asserted his power by knocking out Demian Maia at 0:21 in the first round.

Filipino-American Brandon “The Truth” Vera, meantime, won over Krzysztof “The Polish Experiment” Soszynski by unanimous decision.
     
A technical knockout victory (at 0:17 in the second round) was scored by Aaron “A-Train” Simpson over Ed “Short Fuse” Herman.
 
Another TKO was made by Gabriel “Napao” Gonzaga which defeated Chris “The Crowbar” Tuchscherer at 2:27 in the first round.

The clash between Justin “The Nsane1” McCully and Mike Russow, meantime, ended with a unanimous decision win for Russow.

Todd Duffee snagged a quick victory as he knocked out Tim “The Thrashing Machine” Hague at 0:07 in the first round. The KO made with just seven seconds into the fight is a record feat, according to UFC.com.
     
Fil-Am Mark Muñoz earned a split decision win over rival Nick Catone. The result of “The Filipino Wrecking Machine” was also eked out by Evan Dunham against Marcus “Maximus” Aurelio.