MMA - UFC - Bellator

Contemplating retirement after a unanimous decision less than a month ago, former WEC lightweight champion Jamie Varner stepped back into the cage at last night’s XFC 14: Resurrection. The devastating loss came at the hands of someone Varner believed he should have easily handled, which prompted Varner to tweet out he was retiring. Not so fast though, Varner was already schedule to fight at XFC 14 against Nate Jolly.

You could see where Varner was coming from with the retirement talk though. Coming into last night’s fight he was a dismal 1-4-1 since losing the WEC lightweight strap to Ben Henderson on January 10^th, 2010.

Leading up to last night’s fight Varner made yet another statement that his opponent shouldn’t last more than two minutes with him. The bold statement brought the retirement talk right back to the forefront, but come fight time Varner backed up his statement and shunned talk of retirement.

After Jolly took Varner down in the opening seconds of the fight, the veteran made his way back up and out of harm’s way. From there Varner got a takedown of his own and postured up for some good old ground and pound. It didn’t take much before Jolly was defenseless and had the lights turned out just 69 seconds into the fight, giving Varner his most impressive victory since his first title defense against Marcus Hicks in 2008.

Whether or not Varner is “back” will remain to be seen but he made it look easy last night.

XFC 14 Main Card results:

Jamie Varner defeated Nate Jolly by 1^st rd. TKO

Carmelo Marrero defeats Scott Barrett by Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Marianna Kheyfets defeated Molly Helsel by Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)

Reggie Pena defeated Josh Clark by Unanimous Decision (29-28, 30-27, 29-28)

Nicolae Cury defeated Elijah Harshbargar by 1^st rd. Submission (Armbar)

Mikey Gomez defeated Mike Bernhard by 2^nd rd. Submission (Rear Naked Choke)

John Mahlow defeated Bruce Connors by Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)