PBP Commentary

Coming up we have a heavyweight MMA rules bout between Stephen Harper (ranked 0 p4p, 0 weight class) and tony garcia (ranked 0 p4p, 0 weight class). garcia has chosen Vida loka parte 2 as his entrance music. The fight MMA fans around the world have waited their entire lives for!

Harper
vs
garcia

202 cm
23
250 lbs
4 - 3 - 1

200 cm
22
260 lbs
1 - 1 - 0

Decent wrestler
Brawler
Granite chin

BJJ Purple Belt
Good kicks
Solid chin

Ladies and gentlemen. This fight is 3 rounds, in the heavyweight division.
Introducing the fighter to my left, fighting out of the red corner.
With a record of 4 - 3 - 1, fighting out of Rio de Janeiro, Stephen Harper!
And introducing the fighter to my right, fighting out of the blue corner.
With a record of 1 - 1 - 0, fighting out of Rio de Janeiro, tony garcia!
The judges for this bout are Daniel Cesar, Paulo Santos and Alexandre Firmino.

The bell rings for round one and we are underway!
garcia scores with a head kick.
Harper throws a lazy right hand but garcia sees it coming a mile off and sidesteps it easily.

Harper looking for a takedown here - he's got it.
Harper seems content to control from guard here. He's going to have to remain active though if he doesn't want to get stood back up.
Harper passes into half guard under a barage of strikes.
garcia tries to strike from the bottom but it doesn't land.
Harper controlling the action here.
garcia has the superior BJJ but he's also working some ground strikes into his gameplan.
Harper wants to free his trapped foot but garcia is holding on for dear life with his legs.
Harper tries to stand but his arm is trapped.

That's one minute gone in the round.

garcia actively working from the bottom here.
garcia is trying to stand back up but Harper is controlling him
Harper blocks the strikes from garcia.

It looks like we're going to have a standup here. Neither fight is doing enough on the ground.
garcia misses with a takedown

and Harper counters with a nice shoot takedown that brings the fighters to the ground.
Harper is looking to stand up but garcia won't let him.
The fighters are pressed up against the cage, both looking to find a bit of space to work.
Harper passes into half guard.
Harper looks over to his corner - he wants some instructions but his corner are not responding.
The ref warns both fighters not to hold the cage as they work up against the meshing.

Harper postures up and decides to stand up, from the half guard. The ref calls for garcia to stand up.
Harper tries to clinch there but garcia circles away.
garcia fails with the takedown

and Harper counters with a shoot takedown. garcia fights it but they end up in guard.
Harper is breathing heavily.

That's two minutes gone in the round.
Fantastic stuff here - a very entertaining period of action, which has drawn cheers from the crowd.

garcia working for a triangle but Harper defends it easily.
Harper slows down the pace of the fight for a moment. He'll need to remain active if he doesn't want to see the fight stood back up.
Harper pressing down on his opponent's thigh, looking to pass guard. garcia is keeping the position for now.
Harper knows he needs to get back to his feet asap. He's simply no match for garcia on the ground.

garcia has a loose triangle. He'll be looking to tighten that up but Harper can see exactly what he's planning and manages to posture up and free himself.
Harper sitting in guard here, content to control.

garcia has his foot on Harper's thigh. He's trying to push off and get in position for a triangle, I think. Harper works his way back into a safe position though.

That's three minutes gone in the round.

Harper gets to his feet. garcia looking to butt scoot but the ref puts an end to that. On your feet son!

garcia scores a trip takedown into side control. Nice.

garcia thinks about going for a far side armbar but bails out and retains the dominant position instead.
garcia throwing shots but missing, from side control.
Harper dodges the ground and pound from garcia.
Harper is looking for a sweep.
garcia in side control, trying to ground and pound but not landing this time.
Harper is looking to reverse the position.
Harper is trying to control garcia's posture but garcia avoids it.
garcia advances to full mount.

garcia working to secure an arm triangle but it's not happening for him just yet.

That's four minutes gone in the round.

garcia has control of Harper's right arm, working for a kimura. It's a bit of a token attempt though and Harper regains control of the situation pretty easily.
garcia unloads with some shots from mount but Harper bucks and avoids them well.
Harper is bucking up trying to escape but garcia cracks him with another couple of good strikes.
Harper wants to hold on but garcia pushes him away.

garcia is working on an americana here. Ooh, that looks pretty nasty! Nope, Harper has managed to escape the submission attempt.
Harper tries to reverse the position but garcia maintains control.
As the round comes to an end the crowd are showing their appreciation for a great round of action.
Harper is squirming around, avoiding garcia's attempts to control the action.

garcia working to secure an arm triangle but it's not happening for him just yet.
And that’s the end of the round – the fighters go back to their corners.

Stephen Harper dominated that round.
The corners get their ten second warning. Both fighters stand from their stools and stare eachother down, ready to get back to the action.

Harper scores a trip takedown into side control. Nice.
garcia is trying to get back to half guard. He's pushing on Harper's leg. He's managed it. Nice work.
garcia tries to get to full guard but Harper has control of the leg.

garcia looking to work for a kimura from the bottom.
garcia wants to get back to full guard.
Both fighters are absolutely exhausted here.

garcia actively working from the bottom here.

garcia looking for submissions from an awkward position here.
garcia is looking to regain full guard. Not this time though.

That's one minute gone in the round.

Harper decides to return to a standing position.
garcia falls off balance throwing a combination

and Harper counters with a nice single leg takedown and he's in garcia's guard now.
Hammerfist, elbow! yells Harper's corner. There ya go! There ya go!

garcia looking for submissions off his back, moving his hips, looking for an opening.

garcia looking for submissions off his back, moving his hips, looking for an opening.
garcia is working an open guard here, looking to improve his position. No doubt that will leave him open to counters but at least he's being more offensive.

garcia throwing his legs up looking for a triangle.
garcia working a defensive guard here.

That's two minutes gone in the round.
garcia being controlled here, momentarily.

garcia looking for a guillotine here but Harper defends easily.
The crowd cheering loudly, showing their appreciation for the quality fight we're seeing here.
Harper working some strikes from top position.
Harper lands a couple of digs.
garcia looking to hit a scissor sweep but Harper is one step ahead there.
garcia wants to improve his position but instead Harper has moved into half guard.
garcia missing with punches from the bottom.

That's three minutes gone in the round.
garcia taking some punishment here, with Harper in his half guard.
Harper works his way into full mount!
garcia is trying to escape the mount.
Harper controlling his opponent.
Harper cracks garcia with a nasty head shot there - the crowd let out an audible gasp there, as the noise reverberated around the arena.

Harper working for a submission but garcia is keeping him at bay.
Harper controlling the position easily from mount.

That's four minutes gone in the round.
The crowd are getting on the fighters' backs, as the pace has dropped off in the last minute or so.
garcia manages to regain half guard. Good work.
garcia regains full guard. Nicely done.
garcia trying to strike off his back.

garcia is active off his back here, looking for submissions.
Harper controls the pace of the fight for a moment.

garcia is active off his back here, looking for submissions.
The crowd applaud the fighters efforts here as the round comes to an end.
Harper lands a couple of elbows.
Harper pressing down on his opponent's thigh, looking to pass guard. garcia is keeping the position for now.
Harper advances position into side control!
And that’s the end of the round – the fighters go back to their corners.

That was a close second round but I would say that Stephen Harper will probably get the nod.
That's the end of the interval. I'm sure that seemed a lot quicker than a minute for our two fighters! Back to the action. And we move into the final round!

garcia tries for a takedown but Harper circles away easily

and Harper counters with a nice double leg into guard.

Harper stands up from guard. Let's bang!
garcia shoots and misses

and Harper counters with a shoot takedown. garcia fights it but they end up in guard.
The crowd cheering loudly, showing their appreciation for the quality fight we're seeing here.

garcia looking for submissions off his back, moving his hips, looking for an opening.
Harper controlling from the top position.

garcia looking for a guillotine here but Harper defends easily.
garcia throwing strikes off his back to little effect.
garcia will have to put a bit more behind his punches if he's going to do any damage from this position.
Both fighters are breathing heavily.
Harper postures up and lands a big shot to garcia's brow.

That's one minute gone in the round.
garcia tries to land a sweep but no joy.

garcia looking for submissions from the bottom here. Moving his hips around, possibly looking for an armbar.

Harper stands up and waves to garcia to follow him.
Harper misses with a double jab.
Horrible takedown by Harper or perhaps it was just good defense by garcia which made him look bad.

garcia shoots in for a takedown and gets it.
Harper controlling the position well.

That's two minutes gone in the round.
Harper's ground tactics aren't going to win him many fans. Let's hope he's got fireworks for us if he gets back to his feet because he's not doing much on the ground.
garcia throwing shots but they're hitting the canvas more than the man.
garcia wants to take a breather but Harper is having none of it.
Harper on his back here. We all know that wrestlers don't like being on their back so let's see if Harper tries to get out of the position.
Harper is controlling garcia's trapped leg to prevent garcia from advancing to side control.
garcia trying to mount his opponent but Harper defends it.

Harper kicks garcia off and gets back to his feet.

That's three minutes gone in the round.
The fight stays on the outside here - Harper looks like he's thinking about clinching though.

Harper gets the takedown into side control.
The referee asks Harper politely if he wouldn't mind getting on with it and actually doing something. Harper prefers to stall for the moment though.
garcia sneaks a leg under to get back to half guard.
garcia is trying to stand back up but Harper is controlling him
garcia is trying to get back to full guard.
garcia moves his hips nicely and gets into full guard.
Harper wants to get up but he can't break garcia's closed guard. He needs to be careful trying to break the legs open, as he's open to submissions here.

Harper avoids a guillotine attempt easily.
Harper scores with a decent looking elbow strike.

That's four minutes gone in the round.
Harper scoring with some ground and pound.
garcia being controlled here, momentarily.
Stephen Harper overall seems to be getting the better of the ground position in the fight so far.
Harper passes garcia's right leg, so he's now in half guard.
Harper is figuring out what he wants to do next.
tony garcia has stepped it up - he knows he needs a finish here!
As the round comes to an end the crowd are showing their appreciation for a great round of action.
Harper has freed up his trapped foot and advances to mount.
We've seen a great period of action over the last minute or so - credit to both fighters for leaving it all in the cage!
garcia can't escape the position.

And that's the end of the fight!
Stephen Harper showed his dominance in that final round.
Well I reckon that's a shut out for Harper, winning every round. Will the judges agree? They are the ones who matter, even if they are often depressingly incompetent. Over to the ring announcer for the scorecards.

Ladies and gentlemen, after 3 rounds of action, we go to the scorecards for a decision.
Judge Daniel Cesar scores the fight 30:27
Judge Paulo Santos scores the fight 30:27
Judge Alexandre Firmino scores the fight 30:27

In favor of your winner, by unanimous decision... Stephen Harper!