Chad “The Disciple” Laprise might have missed weight in his lightweight bout in the final prelim against Thibault Gouti on UFC on Fox 21, but he made good use of the extra weight. Less than halfway through the first round, Laprise landed an excellent counter, dropping Gouti.
Thibault survived briefly, but Laprise kept the pressure on his French opponent, landing plenty of punches while Gouti looked for an escape route. Finally, the referee stopped the bout, giving Laprise the first round knockout victory. Congrats on the win, Chad!
Luckily for us, Brian Stann was calling the bout, and he turned his analytical eye to the win. Laprise impressively blocked one of Gouti’s big looping hooks with his forearm, flicked out a jab, then planted his back foot and landed a devastating counter as Thibault’s momentum kept him moving forward, putting Gouti on the canvas. The follow up shots were academic in ending the contest, though for a second, it did look like Gouti would be able to hold on long enough to clear his head and get back in the fight.
Laprise announced his intention to moving back up to welterweight, so that unfortunate issue of missing weight shouldn’t crop up any more.