Serra, Lutter Earn Title Shots with TUF4 Finale Wins
LAS VEGAS, November 11 – Second chances are a great thing – just ask Matt Serra and Travis Lutter, who bounced back into the UFC via Spike TV’s ‘The Ultimate Fighter 4 – The Comeback’ series and then recorded victories against fellow veterans Chris Lytle and Patrick Cote, respectively, in the TUF4 finale tonight at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino to earn a host of prizes, and most importantly, a shot at their respective division’s champion next year.
Both Serra and Lutter earned a title shot, $100,000 in cash from the UFC, a $100,000 Xyience contract, a 2007 Scion TC automobile, and a limited edition two karat diamond watch from Gerge.
In the welterweight final, Matt Serra and Chris Lytle fought a war of attrition for three rounds that had judges and fans mixed in their opinions of the final split verdict in Serra’s favor.
Scores were 30-27 twice and 27-30 for Serra in a fight that was extremely difficult to score. 
A slow first round picked up steam in the final two minutes as Lytle took Serra down and the jiu-jitsu ace tried to lock in a triangle choke that ‘Lights Out’ escaped from fairly easily.
Serra tried to push the pace a little bit more in the early stages of the second round as he pinned Lytle against the fence and landed with foot stomps in order to soften his foe up for the takedown.  Lytle’s defense was solid though, even though any offense was smothered by Serra.  Finally, with 1:30 left in the round, referee Herb Dean broke up the clinch on the fence and restarted the action, which again was initiated by Serra, whose brief takedown with seconds remaining in the round wasn’t held for more than a moment’s time.
Lytle initiated the striking in the third round, but Serra responded by firing off his infamous Achilles heel, a spinning backfist.  It didn’t land, but it made Lytle hesitate enough that he fell victim to Serra’s first solid takedown.  Again, Lytle’s defense was watertight as he held Serra close and forced a standup by Dean.  But it was Serra who once again jumped in close, not allowing Lytle the opportunity to use his better boxing ability, and though the Indianapolis fighter got some shots in at close range, it wasn’t enough to sway the judges.
Serra will face the winner of next week’s UFC 65 title match between Matt Hughes and Georges St. Pierre.
In a pre-fight interview, Travis Lutter claimed that his TUF4 middleweight final against Patrick Cote would play out as follows: “We’ll circle, I’ll take him down, and the fight’s over.”
He was right, as he took just 42 seconds to put Cote on the mat, and he then went on to use his stellar Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu game to lock in an armbar and force Cote to submit at 2:18 of the opening round.
“I didn’t expect it quite that fast,” said Texas’ Lutter, “but sometimes you get lucky.”
There was no luck involved, and with the win, Lutter – in addition to the aforementioned prizes – earns a shot at UFC middleweight boss Anderson Silva in 2007.
“Anderson Silva may be the best overall striker in the UFC, but I’ll take him down,” said Lutter.
“Now you’ll have the same opportunity I had against Rich Franklin,” said Silva, who earned his title with a first round stoppage of Franklin in October.  “I’m gonna have to train some Jiu-Jitsu.”
Returning lightweight Din Thomas was impressive in his Octagon return, showing an impressive standup game before submitting Rich Clementi at 3:11 of the second round.
“Everybody needs a little break,” said Thomas of his layoff and return.  “Now I’m back to break people.”
With faster and more accurate hands, Thomas edged out the first round over the game Clementi, who stayed in the fight thanks to some impressive kicks to the legs and head.  In the second though, with fatigue setting in, Thomas stepped on the gas, and sent Clementi to the canvas, where he sunk in the fight ending rear-naked choke. 
Jorge Rivera worked his standup gameplan to perfection against Edwin Dewees in the Spike TV opener, swarming his TUF4 castmate en route to a first round TKO victory in their middleweight contest.
Using his range and fast hands, Rivera kept Dewees, a submission ace, from getting the bout to the mat throughout the opening frame, and after a shot to the body hurt Dewees and sent ‘BamBam’ to the mat, it was pretty much game over, as Rivera’s unrelenting barrage of unanswered punches left referee Yves Lavigne no choice but to halt the bout at the 2:37 mark.
Pete ‘The Secret Weapon’ Spratt got back in the UFC win column in his bout against fellow TUF4 competitor Jeremy Jackson, gaining a second round victory when Jackson tapped out due to a neck injury.
Working his Muay Thai game early, Spratt soon found himself on the mat courtesy of a series of Jackson takedowns, and ‘The Scorpion’ controlled much of the first round.  Spratt looked to get things going in the second stanza, and as the two worked along the fence, he pushed Jackson’s head down to avoid a takedown.  Suddenly, at the 1:11 mark, Jackson suddenly submitted as he aggravated a training injury to his neck.  
“When he was pushing my head down,” said Jackson, “it felt like it was gonna snap.”
TUF 4 middleweights Scott Smith and Pete Sell promised the fight of the night, and the two buddies certainly did their best to deliver on that promise, with an entertaining war that ended with what was unquestionably THE knockout of 2006.
After a first round that was punctuated by a laser-like left hand from Smith, a series of hellacious haymakers from Sell, and a couple of stoppages that saw both fighters stop, smile, and high five each other, the two combatants continued to throw leather in the second frame.
Sell trudged forward after Smith, fighting through a cut under his right eye, and finally hit paydirt with a brutal left to the body.  Smith doubled over in pain and Sell moved in for the kill.
“I got drilled,” said Smith.  “I knew I only had one punch left in me.”
That one punch, a right to the jaw of the onrushing Sell, stopped the New Yorker immediately and brought in referee John McCarthy to halt the bout at the 3:25 mark.  As soon as the fight was stopped, Smith joined Sell in pain on the canvas.  It was an unforgettable ending.
“We have nothing but respect for each other,” said Smith. “I think we put on a helluva show.”
Unquestionably.
TUF 4 middleweight Charles McCarthy got his first UFC win in the bank as he submitted fellow cast member Gideon Ray at 4:43 of the first round.
“I feel fantastic,” said McCarthy, dubbed ‘Captain Miserable’ during the Spike TV reality series.
Seemingly befuddled by Ray’s speed and footwork early, McCarthy kept his cool and eventually closed the distance and got the fight to the mat with a slam and followed up with the fight ending armbar.
“Man, he was fast,” said McCarthy.  “I knew going in I had to be patient.”
In a high-impact middleweight opener, Martin Kampmann moved to 2-0 in the Octagon with a punishing three round unanimous decision win over UFC debutant Thales Leites.
Scores were 29-27 twice and 29-28 for Kampmann.
Using an array of impressive striking skills, Kampmann survived a knockdown and some rocky moments from the gutsy Leites in the opening round to dominate the second and bloody his foe’s nose.  Leites started the third off strong with some quick shots to the head, but a minute and a half in, a left dropped him and Kampmann continued to push the pace until the final bell against the exhausted and battered Brazilian.