UFC Fight Night Ottawa: Stephen Thompson outpoints Rory MacDonald and calls for a welterweight title shot

UFC Fight Night Ottawa featured one of the most highly anticipated main events of the year with Stephen 'Wonderboy' Thompson taking on Rory 'The Red King' MacDonald.

MacDonald was making his first appearance in nearly over year following his epic war with Robbie Lawler at UFC 189 which many people called one of the greatest UFC fights of all time. After a lengthy absence from the Octagon, MacDonald faced one of the welterweight division's biggest rising stars in the form of Stephen 'Wonderboy' Thompson who came into the fight riding high on wins against Jake Ellenberger and Johnny Hendricks.

Both men started out cautiously and rounds one and two were almost a mirror image of each other. Both fighters stood at range and used their superb judgement of range and footwork to move into distance and unload single shots. Thompson landed the more volume but it was arguably close as to who actually did the better work to take rounds on the scorecards.

The rounds continued to be tight but with every passing minute, Thompson seemed to be gaining more and more control over the fight. The action briefly got a little more frenetic at the beginning of round four when the both traded some stinging fast hands at close quarters, but the pace soon settled again and the game of chess once resumed with both men searching for just the odd opportunity to unload their offence.

With five minutes remaining and MacDonald sensing he was down on the scorecards, the Canadian attempted to take the fight to American and he had success briefly wobbling Thompson with a left hook. 'Wonderboy' rallied though and replied with his own left hand and kick to the midsection to turn the momentum back his way.

MacDonald then tried to take Thompson down but found himself on his back as Thompson landed in side control. With ninety seconds remaining, Thompson shattered the nose of MacDonald with a stiff left hand and blood began to pour profusely from the Canadian. Both men were swinging until the end but after twenty-five minutes, the fight went to the cards and it was no surprise to see the judges give 'Wonderboy' the nod 50-45, 50-45 and 48-47.

Speaking to commentator Jon Anik in the Octagon afterwards, Thompson made it clear that he wanted a shot at the UFC welterweight title and staked his claim to take on the winner of Robbie Lawler vs Tyrone Woodley who face each other at UFC 201.

In the co-main event of the evening, Donald 'Cowboy Cerrone' took on Patrick Cote and made his second appearance in the welterweight division. Despite being the noticeably smaller of the two men, in round one Cerrone outmuscled Cote using his wrestling to take the Canadian down to the mat and totally dominate him using his Jiu Jitsu.

In round two, the action mostly stayed on the feet but it was still Cerrone asserting his dominance using his superior speed to chop away at the legs of Cote who simply refused to try check or block his kicks. With ninety seconds left to go in the round, Cerrone dropped his man with a big left hand but Cote rallied well to get back to his feet and hear the end of round buzzer.

Early in the third round, 'Cowboy' dropped Cote again with another clubbing left hand. Again, Cote rose to his feet but he was on his back for a third time just a few moments later via another left hook. This time around Cote wasn't getting up and after a brief flurry of ground and pound, the referee called a stop to the action giving Cerrone his second win at welterweight.

There was also British interest in Ottawa last evening as Scotland's Joanne Calderwood was in action as she faced Valerie Létourneau in the first-ever women's flyweight match-up to take place in the UFC. Both women seemed much happier during fight week fighting at 125lbs and it showed in the fight as well as they put on a barn burner to open up the main card.

An eventful opening round saw Calderwood drop her Canadian opponent with a big spinning back fist to the chin. Létourneau recovered and made it to round two but she was taken down twice leaving her two rounds down heading into the last.

In the final round, the Scot finished the fight with a brutal kick to the midsection that had Létourneau oddly turn away from her opponent as she clutched her abdomen. Calderwood attempted to follow up with strikes but the referee quickly jumped in and called the fight handing Calderwood the voctory in the UFC's first ever women's 125lbs battle.

In what was no doubt the 'fight of the night', Steve Bosse and Sean O'Connell somehow, to the amazement of everyone in attendance, stood toe-to-toe and slugged it out for fifteen minutes in one of the most incredible fights of recent times.

To describe the fight blow by blow would be almost impossible. There were hundreds of strikes thrown by both men and several momentum changes as both showed little regard for defense as simply sucked up strike after strike.

The action was spellbinding as both men put it all on the line with neither man willing to give an inch. After fifteen breathless minutes and a prolonged standing ovation from everyone in attendance, the fight went to the judges where it was scored 29-28, 29-28, 29-27 in the favour of the hometown man Bosse. It was an incredible fight and one worth of any combat sports fan going out there way to watch on replay.

On the preliminary card, Poland's Krzysztof Jotko picked up a devastating win over Tamdan McCrory when he levelled the American with a big overhand left to the temple that sent him unconscious before his back even hit the mat. It was the Pole's biggest win of his career and he will no doubt have got the attention of the top 15 fighters in the middleweight division.

Stephen Thompson def. Rory MacDonald, unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 48-47)

Donald Cerrone def. Patrick Cote, TKO (round 3, 2:35)

Steve Bosse def. Sean O’Connell, unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-27)

Olivier Aubin-Mercier def. Thibault Gouti, submission (round 3, 2:28)

Joanne Calderwood def. Valerie Letourneau, TKO (round 3, 2:51)

Jason Saggo def. Leandro Silva, split-decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)

Misha Cirkunov def. Ion Cutelaba, submission (round 3, 1:22)

Krzysztof Jotko def. Tamdan McCrory, knockout (round 1, 0:59)

Joe Soto def. Chris Beal, submission (round 3, 3:39)

Elias Theodorou def. Sam Alvey, unanimous decision (29-28, 30-37, 30-27)

Randa Markos def. Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger, unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)

Colby Covington def. Jonathan Meunier, submission (Round 3, 4:06)

Ali Bagautinov def. Geane Herrera, unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)