Because the co-main event between Alessio Sakara and Jorge Rivera was scrapped due to an illness to Sakara, Duane Ludwig -- who was coming off a brutal ankle injury -- looked to get past Nick Osipczak in the first fight to air on the Spike TV card.

It was close, but "Bang" did exactly that. 

Ludwig opened the fight by putting together combinations and stalking Osipczak. He was doing a great job mixing up his punches with kicks. After handily winning the beginning of the round, he made the mistake of leaving himself open and Osipczak dropped him with a hard right and a left hook behind it.

The knockdown earned him the round on the scorecards.

Although Ludwig was cut above his eye and rocked in the first, he showed no ill effects from either to start the second. A brief U.S.A. chant broke out, which was odd. Ludwig continued working kicks and controlling the center of the cage. Towards the end of the round Osipczak scored a takedown but did nothing with it and the ref stood them up just before the round ended.

The third round was all Ludwig. It was clear from the outset that Osipczak was completely gassed and he offered absolutely nothing in the way of offense. Although Ludwig was never able to land anything with enough power to finish the fight, he put an emphatic stamp on the round and scraped by with a split decision victory by scores of 28-30, 29-28 and 29-28.

Osipczak has now lost three in a row while Ludwig avoided a three-fight losing streak of his own and made a successful return to the welterweight division.