WSOF 12 went Saturday night on NBC Sports Network with a five-fight main card. While the event was much shorter on name power than previous WSOF events, the fights themselves ended up being quite long in duration. Outside of the main event, all of the main card bouts went to decision, and the card ran over two and a half hours. The main event saw a contender for Justin Gaethje’s lightweight title emerge, as Luis Palomino (23-9) avoided all of Lewis Gonzalez’s (9-1) grappling attack and punished the previously undefeated fighter on the feet, scoring a brutal knockout. Twice in the fight Palomino used a low right leg kick to set up power strikes from the left side. Early in the round he hurt Gonzalez with a left hook, and the finishing blow was a left knee/head kick which had Gonzalez right out. Palomino was one of two underdogs to cash on the night, as he closed a +200 underdog (bet $100 to win $200) at Several Bookmakers. A bout between Palomino and Justin Gaethje seems very intriguing should Gaethje get past Melvin Guillard. In his first fight outside of the UFC Ronny Markes (15-3) didn’t quite return to the form that saw him go on a three-fight winning streak at one point in that promotion. Facing late replacement Cully Butterfield (13-4), Markes used his grappling advantage to control the bout and pick up a rather uninspired — and very tired — decision. He was by far the largest favorite on the card, closing at -775 (bet $775 to win $100). This bout was contested at light heavyweight because of the short notice, but look for Markes to return to 185 and jump into WSOF’s title picture, even if this performance doesn’t necessarily warrant that. In a fairly slow affair at middleweight, Elvis Mutapcic (14-3) and Kelvin Tiller (6-1) traded top position for the early portion of the fight, but Mutapcic ended up there far more into the second and third rounds which made the decision easy for the judges to render. Mutapcic picked up his first win in nearly 18 months, and cashed as a -260 favorite. A bantamweight bout saw Brandon Hempleman (10-2) take home a unanimous decision over Alexis Vila (14-5). Hempleman mixed up his striking and threw a higher volume across the bout, which swayed the judges despite Vila landing the harder strikes through the majority of the bout. Both fighters closed at a pick em price of -105, but Hempleman saw the majority of the action leading up to the bout as he opened at +150, and all of those tickets cashed. In the opening bout of the night, Matt Sayles (3-0) showed a tremendous chin in the first round, surviving a big left hand and barrage of punches by Bryson Hansen (7-2) to make it to the bell. In the second, Sayles showed better cardio and a more diverse striking game which allowed him to even things up. That trend continued in the third round, with most onlookers scoring the bout 29-28 Sayles. A late takedown from Hansen put the verdict in some doubt, but in the end the 20-year-old Sayles emerged with the decision and cashed as a +205 underdog.
