George Sotiropoulos tapped out Joe Lauzon with a kimura shoulder lock at 2:43 of the second round at UFC 123.

The win puts Sotiropoulos on the short list of UFC lightweight contenders but he'll have to wait for the winner of UFC 125's Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard to defend his title against the incoming WEC champ -- either Benson Henderson or Anthony Pettis. That means Sotiropoulos will likely have to fight again before he gets his title shot.

Lauzon landed a couple of rights to open the bout and looked quicker standing up. Sotiropoulos went for a single leg but Lauzon stuffed it. Lauzon landed a hard right then a knee in the clinch. Then another right at a distance. Sotiropoulos shot in but ate a number of elbows to the head as he worked for a single. Then he got double underhooks but Lauzon escaped. Lauzon landed another right but also ate a hard shot in return. Sotiropoulos pulled guard and Lauzon escaped in a dramatic scramble and after a number of reversals and counters ended up on top in George's half guard. But then Sotiropoulos got to his feet, got a single leg and took Lauzon down. Then Sotiropoulos took Lauzon's back then moved to side control and went to north-south. Sotiropoulos moved to full mount and went for an arm bar with 10 seconds left. He didn't get the hold and Lauzon capitalized on the positional switch to land several hard elbows. 

Sotiropoulos landed the first shots in the second round then dropped and worked for a single leg but Lauzon forced a clinch against the cage. Then as Sotiropoulos worked for the single leg, Lauzon landed some uppercuts. Sotiropoulos landed a punch then clinched and landed several knees to Lauzon's face. Sotiropoulos got a take down, again got to side mount then north-south where he attacked Lauzon's right arm but didn't get it. Lauzon wasn't able to escape. Lauzon looked gassed as Sotiropolous attacked the arm again and forced the tap with a kimura.

Sotiropoulos entered the fight on the verge of title contention having reeled off six straight wins since coming into the promotion as a semi-finalist in the sixth season of The Ultimate Fighter. 

Lauzon came into the Octagon tonight off an impressive win over Gabe Ruediger at UFC 118.  He's got an overall 6-2 UFC record with his only losses coming to Kenny Florian and Sam Stout.