Stout lives up to nickname at UFC 131

THE CANADIAN PRESS

VANCOUVER — Canadian lightweight Sam (Hands of Stone) Stout has won lots of bonus cheques in the UFC. This time he just wanted to finish his opponent.

Asked earlier in the week if he would take a first-round knockout over another third-round split decision and fight of the night bonus, he replied “Hell yeah.”

“It’s driving me crazy. I definitely want to get the knockout,” added the 27-year-old from London, Ont.

Stout (18-6-1) got both the first-round knockout and a US$70,000 KO of the night bonus cheque Saturday when he flattened veteran Yves Edwards three minutes 52 seconds into their UFC 131 bout.

Edwards connected with a right. Then Stout, crediting a pre-fight tip from coach Shawn Tompkins, knocked him senseless with a looping left hook to the jaw.

“It’s one of the nastiest knockouts I’ve ever seen …. one of the most vicious knockouts in UFC history,” UFC president Dana White said. “If not the most vicious.”

Edwards (40-17-1) toppled backwards and didn’t move. Stout closed for the kill, but held back from punching when he saw Edwards was motionless, his arms outstretched like he had been dropped from 50 storeys.

“He folded right up and went down and hit the back of his head pretty hard,” Stout said. “I had my eyes right onto his eyes and I saw them roll back so I wasn’t going to go in and try and do any more damage than was necessary.

“This is just a sport to me. I’m not somebody who’s trying to hurt anybody. And Yves Edwards is somebody I’ve watched and respected for a long time. He’s a good guy, He gave me a cookie at the weigh-in, so I’m not going to try a hurt a guy like that.”

Edwards remained on his back with four people working on him as Stout was interviewed in the cage after the fight. He eventually got up on a stool to the applause of the crowd but needed a helping hand as he was led away from the cage.

“Thank you everyone for all the support. I’m fine and appreciate your concern,” Edwards tweeted Sunday. “Congrats sammyjstout it was fun while it lasted. Great job!”

Stout, now 6-5 in the UFC, did a backflip in the cage and then jumped atop the fence to celebrate. Nine of his previous UFC fights went the distance and the other was a submission loss.

“I’ve been calling myself Hands of Stone and I haven’t knocked anybody out (in the UFC) in the last five years. So I was started to get a little worried about it,” he said.

“Yeah, it was definitely a big relief to get that knockout and it was good feeling that I haven’t felt in a while. I think you can see if you go back and watch the tape, my celebration got extended a little bit.”

Stout had won previously five fight of the night bonuses from the UFC. The money helped him pay for his Dad’s driveway, buy his car outright, put a down payment on a house and open a gym.

Along with coach Shawn Tompkins, he took time out of fight week to take part in an event to raise money and awareness for anti-bullying and abuse against women.

Back in London, he and fellow fighters Chris Horodecki and Mark Hominick run a kids program out of their Adrenaline Training Centre gym that includes anti-bullying programs.

“This is a sport and it’s our responsibility as guys who are in the spotlight fighting to show that fighting is a sport for us and it’s not something that we do anywhere else other than inside that cage,” Stout explained.