Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returned to London's O2 Arena today (Sat., March 8, 2014) to bring residents of England's most populous metropolitan area a fix of mixed martial arts (MMA) action.
UFC Fight Night 37 aired in North America on UFC's internet-based subscription network "Fight Pass." The undercard "prelims" portion of the event saw Swedish fighter Ilir Latifi retire French UFC veteran Cyrille Diabate by way of a first round guillotine choke submission.
The victory marks Lafti's first win inside the Octagon since making his UFC debut as a last minute replacement for Alexander Gustafsson, after "The Mauler" was scratched thanks to a cut suffered ahead of his scheduled UFC on FUEL TV 9 main event against Gegard Mousasi last spring.
It was a good night for veterans of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF), as well. In the show's opening bout, TUF 14 veteran Louis Gaudinot made short work of Phil Harris thanks to an ultra-quick first round guillotine choke.
Then later in the evening, TUF 17 contestant and Cambridge, England native, Luke Barnatt, improved his UFC record to 3-0 when he stopped Mats Nilsson in the fight's opening frame. The ending came thanks to a thunderous left head kick and a series of follow up strikes.
Elsewhere on the show, Igor Arauju got the nod in a crowd-pleasing effort against Danny Mitchell that ended up going to the judges' scorecards. Brad Scott versus Claudio Henrique da Silva resulted in the only other decision on the preliminary portion of the card, when Silva took a unanimous decision.
Get full UFC Fight Night 37 results and live play-by-play RIGHT HERE.
UFC next returns to Europe July 19, 2014 for an event scheduled for Dublin' Ireland's O2 Arena.