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Gurgel outslugs Heun in a Fight of the Year candidate


Conor Heun is one tough customer but that didn't make Jorge Gurgel shy away from going right into the eye of "The Hurricane." Gurgel, who was cut by the UFC after a loss at UFC 91 to Aaron Riley, fought the same way he did his last seven times out, he threw caution to the wind. Gurgel was blasted on dozens of occasions but took those shots in stride to land the bigger blows throughout the fight and gain a unanimous decision (29-28 and 30-27 on two scorecards) win over Heun in his Strikeforce debut.

Gurgel stopped Heun in his tracks and froze him on at least four occasions but the Colorado native just kept charging forward:

"I've never seen a guy in my life with that kind of chin, besides myself," Gurgel told Showtime's Stephen Quadros. "I cracked him. I heard his bones cracking and he did not move."

Gurgel won the fight with his right kicks. He got things going early by crushing Heun's lead leg and also scoring with some inside leg kicks. The Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt would generally follow the kicks with a right hand and left hook. There was an impressive display in the second round when Gurgel actually threw a right kick and  before his leg had even hit the ground, he followed the kick with a right hand. That series of blows came late in the second round. It was one of two vicious kick-punch combinations that had Heun reeling in the final 1:10 of that round.

Gurgel didn't escape unscathed. Heun was effective in using a collar tie to pull Gurgel into at least 10 close-quartered scrums where both fighters unleashed 8-to-10 strikes apiece. Gurgel suffered two bad cuts on his right eyelid.

The fighters' warrior attitudes were the reason this one turned out to be one of the best fights of 2009:

"He’s a class act," Gurgel said of Heun. "I promised everyone to use my jiu-jitsu but Conor was actually the perfect opponent for me. I was looking for the (takedown) shot and he didn’t shoot. He stood there and banged with me. He made me have a ton more fun."

Fighters are strange birds. Bloodied, battered and bruised ... they call that fun. A philosophical Heun agreed:

"I'm going home a few bucks short and a little banged up but I wouldn't pass up the last 15 minutes for anything. Most fun I've had ever."

Gurgel (13-5) was 3-4 in the UFC but did go out with a Fight of the Night bonus in that final go around. The UFC probably made a mistake in releasing him. He's a nice pick up for Strikeforce and a promoter's dream. There was no reason he couldn't have been a lightweight Chris Lytle for the UFC.

If you recognize Heun's name it may be because he appeared as a Jason Miller fighter this season on MTV's Bully Beatdown.

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