A Merciful Joe Lauzon Defeats MMA Legend Takanori Gomi at UFC Chicago

UFC Lightweight Joe Lauzon via JoeLauzon.com

It is extremely rare for a fighter to show mercy on their opponent but that is what UFC lightweight Joe Lauzon did on Saturday when it became clear that MMA legend Takanori Gomi was no longer defending himself intelligently in their UFC on Fox 16 bout.

Lauzon took the fight to the ground after 90 seconds of relatively uninteresting sparring in the octagon. It was not the prettiest shoot for Lauzon as he grabbed Gomi’s ankle to secure the takedown before scrambling onto his flattened back. Lauzon unloaded elbows and fists to Gomi’s head while the former champion struggled to get Lauzon of off him. The blows were quickly too much for Gomi and he appeared to be unconscious so Lauzon climbed off of him while looking at referee Herb Dean, who hesitated before calling the fight. The official score gave Lauzon the round one TKO at 2:37.

It was one of the more unusual endings to a fight in UFC history as Lauzon, a fight bonus machine, showed his opponent mercy. In the build up to the fight Lauzon said that he had much respect for the former Pride lightweight champion and even called Gomi a “hero.”

“I should have kept punching, it would have been the smart thing to do but the guy’s a hero, I didn’t want to do any extra harm,” said Lauzon in his post-fight interview.

With the win Lauzon improves to 3-1 in his last four fights and 25-11 overall. His last lost came by TKO to Al Iaquinta at UFC 183.

“Kinda crappy to hurt your hero but that’s the way it goes,” said Lauzon.

The loss, Gomi’s second in a row and third in his last four fights,  drops him to 35-11 with 1 NC.