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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Former UFC Heavyweight Champion Tim Sylvia proved he's still got something left in the tank, stopping Paul Buentello at the end of the second round at Powerhouse World Promotions: War on the Mainland on pay-per-view.
Sylvia was in control of the fight from the opening bell, using his reach advantage to tag Buentello with jabs and short combinations. Much of the fight was then spent in the clinch in the corners of the ring, with Sylvia continually getting the best of the action.
Buentello did manage to land some punches in the fight, but it held a pattern of Tim Sylvia landing shots and clinching, all the while doing more work in the clinch.
The finish came when Sylvia dropped Buentello with an uppercut, causing Buentello to fall back and slam his head against the canvas. This was Buentello's second fight since being released from the UFC earlier this year after an unsuccessful 0-2 second stint in the organization. He picked up a win over Bryan Humes in May at Shark Fights 11 in the interim.
Sylvia has now strung together three straight wins after dropping three straight to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Fedor Emelianenko and Ray Mercer.
Penick's Analysis: It wasn't the most impressive fight by any stretch of the imagination, but considering Buentello was just one fight removed from his UFC contract it's the most legitimate win Sylvia's had in almost three years. PWP also had this fight at a 275 lb. cutoff for the heavyweight division instead of the normal 265 lb. limit, and Sylvia came in just under it. It's better than the over 300 lb. he was in the Mercer fight and the over 280 lb. he was in the Pudzianowski fight, and if he wants to try to make a last run at legitimacy in 2010 he'll need to be able to make the cut to 265 lb. If he can work out a deal with Strikeforce I don't see any reason he can't enter their heavyweight division after this win. He didn't look terrible at all.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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