It was a bad night for a couple of the UFC's blonde, young stars at UFC on Fox 22 in Sacramento Saturday night.
Both Paige VanZant and Sage Northcutt fell victim to rear naked choke losses in their main and co-main event fights. Michelle Waterson and Mickey Gall both increased their profiles with big wins.
Waterson was facing a year-and-a-half layoff from MMA, and returned with a vengeance, dominating VanZant for the duration of the fight. Waterson kept PVZ at bay with side kicks, before cracking a wading VanZant and landing a head and arm throw. Waterson took VanZant's back and put the Dancing With The Stars runner up to sleep.
Northcutt found success on the feet with Gall, but fell victim to several takedowns, and was uncharacteristically trash talking in the fight. Gall finished his fourth straight pro fight with a rear naked choke after cracking Northcutt and dropping him. After the fight, Gall declared his intent to drop to 155 pounds, and called out former UFC fighter Dan Hardy.
Elsewhere on the show, hometown boy Urijah Faber won a one-sided decision over Brad Pickett to end "The California Kid's" storied MMA career. Pickett weathered an early storm to survive, but ultimately the scorecards all read 30-26 to give Faber the win, and a proper sendoff.
You can see our UFC on Fox 22 coverage at this link. We'll be covering the show on the Fightful.com Podcast at Noon EST
