Two men earned the right to be called the next ultimate fighter Saturday evening at the Pearl inside the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. Highly speculated to be the next best prospect in the UFC, Phillipe Nover lost his lightweight fight against Efrain Escudero. Undefeated in eleven fights, Escundero won by using a dominant wrestling game and near submission attempts to stomp out a unanimous decision.

“I knew my wrestling was superior, and I knew that he had great stand-up,” said Escudero. “As soon as he tried to stand with me and I felt uncomfortable, I just took him down.”

Escundero started strong with a solid take down and shortly after took Nover’s back in search for a choke. Although the choke was not successful, Nover spent most of his night getting caught in that basic scenario; getting taken down and escaping ground attacks from Escundero.

“I wish him the best, but I knew stepping in he wasn’t going to be the next Anderson Silva,” Escudero said. “I knew it was going to be Phillipe Nover and me in the cage. I strapped (gloves) on and went out there and did exactly what I had to do.”

Also undefeated and a crowd favorite Ryan Bader mauled Vinicius Magalhaes in just 2:18 of the first round. After a brief exchange of kicks in the center of the octagon, Bader struck pay-dirt with big right hand to drop his challenger. Bader capitalized with hammer fists to close the door on Magalhaes’ hopes of getting the six-figure contract.

“I felt a good part of it land,” Bader said. “It was deflected a little bit, but I do have a heavy right hand. I felt it hit him pretty much just square in the temple. It doesn’t really take much if you’re going to hit a person right there. It connected and went through. Right at that moment, I knew that I had hit him pretty good, and then I just followed up with it.”

Anthony Johnson and Kevin Burns went back and forth for over ten minutes until Johnson threw a left leg-kick that knocked Burns out cold. The third round knockout shot improved Johnson’s record to 6-2.

Wilson Gouveia shocked everyone with a dominating first round ground and pound win over Jason MacDonald. Gouveia’s elbow strikes forced MacDonald to tap just minutes into the opening period.

David Kaplan was no match for the unpredictable Junie Allen Browning at the Pearl. Browning came out to the crowd’s overwhelming displeasure; however he apologized to the audience for his antics on the show after he secured an armbar that prompted a tap.

Krzysztof Soszynski put Shane Primm away in under two rounds Saturday evening with a nasty kimura submission hold. Primm was able to hold his own against Soszynski until he seemingly gassed out and was caught in the painful hold.

Jules Bruchez was unprepared for Eliot Marshall who hurt Bruchez early on with strikes before slaming him to the mat. Marshall took Bruchez’s back and sunk a rear-naked choke 1:27 into the bout.

Tom Lawlor had an exciting three round bout against Kyle Kingsbury, however all three judges saw it in favor of Lawlor in the end.

George Roop and Shane Nelson also went a full three rounds of action, however the final decision was slightly more difficult to call. The final word from the judges was 29-28 (twice) for Nelson and 29-28 for Roop as the crowd visibly disagreed.

John Polakowski and Roli Delgado opened the night with a flurry, however Polakowski was stopped in the second round when he fell into a guillotine choke that forced him to tap.

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