The Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale

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1 Background
2 Fight Card
3 Pre-Event Notes
4 Results
5 Bonus Awards
6 UFC Event Chronology
7 External Links

Background

The Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale is a 10-bout fight card that is set to take place on June 20, 2009 at The Pearl at the Palms in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The card will air live on Spike TV at 9pm ET/PT and will decide the lightweight and welterweight tournament winners for The Ultimate Fighter: United States vs. United Kingdom.

The card will be headlined by a lightweight bout between TUF 1 middleweight winner, Diego Sanchez and former Strikeforce lightweight champion, Clay Guida.

Fight Card

Preliminary Card

Lightweight Bout: Melvin Guillard vs. Gleison Tibau
Light Heavyweight Bout: Mike Ciesnolevicz vs. Tomasz Drwal
Welterweight Bout: Brad Blackburn vs. Edgar Garcia
Lightweight Bout: Jason Dent vs. Cameron Dollar
Welterweight Bout: Frank Lester vs. Nick Osipczak

Main Card

Welterweight Bout: Chris Lytle vs. Kevin Burns
Lightweight Bout: Joe Stevenson vs. Nate Diaz
TUF 9 Welterweight Tournament Final: DaMarques Johnson vs. James Wilks
TUF 9 Lightweight Tournament Final: Andre Winner vs. Ross Pearson
Lightweight Bout: Diego Sanchez vs. Clay Guida

Pre-Event Notes

Melvin Guillard was originally tapped to face Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt, Thiago Tavares, but an injury forced his replacement in Gleison Tibau.

Anthony Johnson was meant to face John Howard, but Howard turned down the bout for reasons unknown. Matt Brown filled in instead. Johnson then had to pull out forcing the bout to be scrapped altogether.

Mike Ciesnolevicz replaced an injured Eric Schafer against Tomasz Drwal.

Martin Kampmann turned down a fight with TJ Grant on this card citing the desire for a higher ranked opponent. Rory Markham was called in as a replacement but a calf injury forced him out and resulted in the entire bout being scrapped.

Results

Preliminary Card

Lightweight Bout: Jason Dent defs. Cameron Dollar via submission (anaconda choke) at 4:46 of round 1.
Welterweight Bout: Nick Osipczak defs. Frank Lester via submission (rear naked choke) at 3:40 of round 1.
Light Heavyweight Bout: Tomasz Drwal defs. Mike Ciesnolevicz via TKO (knee and punches) at 4:48 of round 1.
Welterweight Bout: Brad Blackburn defs. Edgar Garcia via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28).
Lightweight Bout: Melvin Guillard defs. Gleison Tibau via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28).

Main Card

Lightweight Bout: Joe Stevenson defs. Nate Diaz via unanimous decision (29-28 x3).
TUF 9 Lightweight Tournament Final: Ross Pearson defs. Andre Winner via unanimous decision (29-28 x3) to become The Ultimate Fighter: United States vs. United Kingdom lightweight champion.
Welterweight Bout: Chris Lytle defs. Kevin Burns via unanimous decision (29-28 x3).
TUF 9 Welterweight Tournament Final: James Wilks defs. DaMarques Johnson via submission (rear naked choke) at 4:54 of round 1 to become TUF 9's welterweight champion.
Lightweight Bout: Diego Sanchez defs. Clay Guida via split decision (28-29, 29-27, 29-28).

An insane flurry in the opening seconds saw Guida badly hurt and his nose possibly broken. After both fighters returned to their feet from a brief takedown by Guida, Sanchez landed a crushing head kick that dropped Guida. The second round featured a takedown from Guida and him maintaining position as Sanchez unloaded with elbows from the bottom. In the final round, a heated striking exchange was followed by multiple submission attempts from Sanchez that Guida thwarted. The razor thin fight went to the judges and Sanchez was announced the victory in one of the best fights of the year.