Joe Lauzon

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1 Profile
2 Early Career
3 UFC Debut
4 The Ultimate Fighter
5 UFC Career
6 Mixed martial arts record
7 Gallery
8 External links

Profile

Joe "J-Lau" Lauzon (born May 22, 1984) is an American professional mixed martial artist and was a semi finalist on The Ultimate Fighter Season 5.

He stands 5 ft. 10 in. (178 cm) tall and fights in the lightweight division for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Early Career

Joe Lauzon made his professional mixed martial arts debut at Mass Destruction 15 against David Gilrein on February 21, 2004. He defeated David Goliath via submission (armbar) at 3:42 of round 1.

Lauzon fought six more times in 2004, scoring submission victories in all seven bouts which included a submission victory over future WEC featherweight champion, Mike Brown.

"J-Lau" kicked off 2005 with a rear naked choke victory over Joe Ahlert, before sustaining his first professional defeat in his next bout against Jorge Masvidal via TKO.

Lauzon rebounded from the loss with a TKO victory over Tim Honeycutt three months later before he suffered his second professional defeat, this time at the hands of UFC veteran, Ivan Menjivar via calf slicer submission. Lauzon rebounded again with a triangle choke victory over Antoine Skinner before going loss-win-loss-win-loss with a submission defeat at the hands of Rafael Assuncao.

After the Assuncao defeat, Lauzon entered a one night, 8-man tournament for the awkwardly titled, World Fighting League 6 - Real: No Fooling Around.

In the opening round he defeated Adam Comfort via achilles lock submission. He followed that with a slam KO of Zane Baker in the semis before clinching the tournament with an armbar on Douglas Brown at 1.47 of round 1.

UFC Debut

With a 13-3 record, Lauzon was brought into the UFC to face former UFC lightweight champion, Jens Pulver who was making his long awaited comeback to the UFC after having parted ways with organization following a contract dispute after his title defense against BJ Penn.

Lauzon was tagged as a 7 to 1 underdog against Pulver for his UFC 63 bout but that didn't stop him from demolishing Pulver via an astounding KO at :48 of round 1.

The Ultimate Fighter

Lauzon's shocking victory over Pulver combined with his youth and developing skill set led the UFC to cast Lauzon on The Ultimate Fighter Season 5 which would ironically feature Jens Pulver as one of the coaches. It was the first edition of the show to feature lightweight fighters and only one weight class. The underlying aim of the show was to populate a division that had lay dormant for a long stretch of time between UFC 43 and UFC 58.

Lauzon was thought of as the favourite, by many, to win the entire show. In the round of 16, Lauzon dispatched Brian Geraghty via rear naked choke in the first round.

In the quarter finals he faced almost a carbon copy of himself in Cole Miller. In a close and back and forth battle Lauzon gained Miller's back and unleashed a number of strikes to the back of Miller's head, prompting the ref to halt the fight and attend the hurt Miller. Miller decided to continue but looked dazed and was rocked and eventually stopped by Lauzon.

Lauzon was now in the semi-finals and faced surprise packet, Manny Gamburyan for a spot in the final. Gamburyan surprised many as he neutralised Lauzon's game en route to a unanimous decision victory.

A disappointed Lauzon returned at The Ultimate Fighter 5 Finale where he triangle choked fellow castmember Brandon Melendez into submission in the second round to improve his official UFC record to 2-0.

UFC Career

With the notoriety of TUF and being the first man to knock Jens Pulver out within the Octagon and now training full time with his TUF coach, BJ Penn, Lauzon resumed his position in the shark tank that is the UFC lightweight division with heightened anticipation and expectation.

In his first post-TUF bout, Lauzon faced Jason Reinhardt, an undefeated Miletich product with a gaudy 18-0 professional record. Lauzon made quick work of Reinhardt, completely dominating the much older fighter on the ground en route to a very impressive rear naked choke victory just 1:14 into the contest.

His impressive UFC showings earned Lauzon the highest profile fight of his career when he headlined UFC Fight Night 13 against TUF 1 veteran, and top lightweight fighter, Kenny Florian.

Lauzon scored an early takedown and was working some ground and pound when Florian hit Lauzon with some elbows to the head that were deemed illegal by Herb Dean. Lauzon chose to fight on and the fight was, some deemed, controversially put back on their feet. A decision, Lauzon would later lament continously. A close first round, led to a far less competitive second round with Lauzon tiring and Florian achieving mount and raining down punches until the fight was halted at 3:28.

A disappointed Lauzon rebounded from the Florian loss on UFC Fight Night 15, where he TKO'd Kyle Bradley 1:34 into the second round.

Lauzon's next fight will be the main event of UFC Fight Night 17 where he will take on, one time UFC lightweight title challenger, Hermes Franca.