Gegard Mousasi def. Mark Munoz UFC Fight Night 41

Saturday, the Gegard Mousasi everyone has been waiting to see had a chance to do his thing. Mousasi, the former Dream and Strikeforce light heavyweight champion, put on a dominant show against veteran Mark Munoz in the middleweight main event of UFC Fight Night 41 in Berlin, Germany. Mousasi schooled Munoz before finishing him with a rear-naked choke at 3:57 of the opening round. "I worked a lot on the rear-naked choke and guillotine," Mousasi (35-4-2) said in his post-fight interview. "He's a wrestler, so he always comes forward. I want to pick up the angle and slowly go forward."Mousasi hunched his stance to prepare for Munoz's takedowns, and the "Filipino Wrecking Machine" lived up to his promise to go for the takedowns. The problem for Munoz was that Mousasi stuffed nearly all of them, and the one time he was taken down he wound up on top in a scramble. When they sprawled, Mousasi used elbows to the side of the head (although a couple of punches landed on the back of the head). Gegard twice mounted Munoz, with the second one coming from Munoz's own takedown attempt. Mousasi flattened Munoz out, sunk in a deep rear-naked choke, and Munoz had no choice but to tap out. It seemed that Mousasi was aiming for the submission more than the knockout as he'd attempted a face crank just prior to the finishing sequence.In the battle of the undefeated middleweights, Sean Strickland managed to maintain his perfect record. The California native moved to 14-0 in his MMA career after taking a close split-decision over the Brit. Despite being fairly inactive, Strickland still managed to do most of the damage in the fight, avoiding the Brits strikes while landing shots of his own. The featherweights kicked off the main card as Sweden's Niklas Backstrom took on Finland's Tom Niinimaki. Both men came out firing, but it was Niinimaki who took control early using his grappling skills to get the fight to the mat. He was unable to keep his opponent down, however, which cost him dearly. Backstrom landed a huge knee before finishing the fight with a ninja choke.