Tyron Woodley, Bobby Green stand out in UFC 156 prelims

Strikeforce fighters kicked off the night by going 3-0, with Tyron Woodley and Bobby Green making a big statement on Saturday.

As one of the Strikeforce refugees, Woodley was hoping to stand out. Mission accomplished. He destroyed Jay Hieron with a 36-second knockout. Woodley knocked him down with a right, then followed him to the ground to finish the fight. It was Woodley's first fight since losing to Nate Marquardt in Strikeforce in July.

Bobby Green had to overcome Jacob Volkmann's wrestling and some questionable refereeing for a win. Volkmann, an All-American wrestler at Minnesota, rode Green out for the first round. In the second round, Green was on top and working ground and pound when referee Kim Winslow inexplicably stood the fighters up. But Green took over in the third with ground and pound that finally ended with a rear-naked choke. The bout was stopped at 4:25.

Two of the prelim bouts came down to tight decisions. First, Isaac Vallie-Flagg took a stand-up filled split decision over Yves Edwards. It was Vallie-Flagg's UFC debut after fighting for Strikeforce, and he won it 29-28, 29-28, 28-29.

In the final fight of the preliminary bouts, the UFC cut it close as Evan Dunham and Gleison Tibau's three-round fight ended with seconds before the broadcast ended. Dunham won the split decision 29-28, 28-29, 29-28 as he continued to pressure Tibau late in the bout.

In the Facebook preliminaries, Francisco Rivera aggressively came on in the second with big, big strikes. He finished off Edwin Figueroa at 4:20. Chico Camus took Dustin Kimura, a much better grappler, down and then lost by rear naked choke in the third round.

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