Middleweights Aaron Simpson and Eric Shafer met on the preliminary card of UFC 136 at the Toyota Center in Houston. The bout streamed live on Facebook.
UFC 136 Results: Aaron Simpson defeats Eric Schafer by unanimous decision (30-27 x3).
Simpson came out aggressive and immediately hurt Schafer with a hard, heavy uppercut. Schafer dropped to the canvas and Simpson attacked him on the ground, going for the finish. But Schafer survived the barrage and got back to his feet. Cut under his left eye and bleeding a little, Schafer managed to slow the pace of the standing fight just a touch. It wasn't enough to matter much though as Simpson just steadily pounded away at Schafer with sharp combinations of hooks to the body and uppercuts to the face. After he established a collar tie, Simpson used dirty boxing to beat on Schafer even more.
Simpson opened the second with more big punches, reminding Schafer that the beating would continue. Schafer's face began to be red with blood and swelling on the whole left side. Simpson danced in and out and looked to fire combinations. A little past the 3 minute mark, Simpson staggered Schafer with a hook to the body in the midst of a ruthless combination attack. Schafer's only answer was an ineffectual left hook. Schafer wobbled after another combination near 1:30 left in the round. He caught Schafer with a two hook combination that finished on the jaw to cap the round with a knock down. Alas he couldn't finish.
Schafer somehow found the will to continue and came out fighting in the third. Unfortunately for him, Simpson was the one landing the hurtful blows. At 1:20, Simpson tagged Schafer with a body-body-head hook trinity but otherwise the final round was pretty inert. After the bout Aaron Simpson said, "Ryan Bader had fought Eric Shafer and run out of gas and I wasn't going to let that happen to me. I knew I had to pace it and put the momentum on my side."
Eric Shafer said, "Aaron's a better wrestler and a boxer than me, I wanted to use my reach so I wouldn't get caught. I have some work to do. "