UFC 107 Results: Stefan Struve Beats Paul Buentello by Decision

The judges had to make the call in the first fight on tonight's UFC 107 PPV from Memphis, TN and they chose Stefan Struve over Paul Buentello.

Coming in after having endured a difficult camp during which he was kicked out of his long-time training team, Paul Buentello entered the cage against the tallest man in the UFC, Stefan Struve.

Struve pulled guard unsuccessfully in the first minute of the round but followed up with a hard uppercut. Then he took Buentello down and quickly got mount, then took Buentello's back. He worked for a rear naked choke with a body triangle controlling Buentello. Then Struve landed an arm-in rear naked choke but Buentello evaded that one. Struve worked for chokes constantly for most of the round. With less than a minute left, Buentello managed to reverse after Struve abandoned the body triangle.

In the second round, Buentello opened with a hard right hook. A second hook dropped Struve as he was coming in off a kick but the action quickly returned to the feet. Struve fired a punch/kick combo that caught Buentello and forced him into the cage. From there, Struve dropped for a leg lock, then adjusted for a toe hold. When Buentello escaped that, Struve worked for a triangle. Then it was back to the feet. After some minor exchanges, Struve went for a flying knee and Buentello TAGGED him with a right hand that dropped him. After Buentello let him back to his feet, he went for a series of combinations but Struve was able to hang on and force the action back to the feet. Then there was a brutal series of traded punches with both fighters scoring hard shots. They followed that sequence with another brutal sequence that saw both fighters eat hard punches, Buentello getting the better of it.

In between rounds, Struve had to have a chunk of tooth removed from his mouthpiece. They opened it trading again. With Struve landing kicks as Buentello head hunted. Struve followed up with some good punches then forced the action to the fence where he elbowed from the clinch. Then Buentello landed a combination of punches. Trading on the feet, Struve began to hurt Buentello with leg kicks until the American fighter was limping. The action slowed with a minute left before Buentello dropped an off-balance Stuve with a jab. But it was restarted and they ended the round trading hard shots.