Marcos Rogerio de Lima spoils homecoming in Auckland

There aren't a great many Kiwi stars in the UFC but Ben Sosoli could probably be considered one of the more well-known ones.

Don't get the wrong idea, Sosoli is not an up-and-comer nor is he even ranked in the top 20, there just isn't that much going on in the heavyweight division at the moment in UFC where fighters like Alistair Overreem remain in the top-10 despite having losing records in recent years .

Personally, I feel there are 2 reasons that we even get to hear about Sosoli from time to time: He'll fight any time there is an event in New Zealand and most of the ones in Australia, where he was born. We also get to see him because unlike his opponents, he doesn't even seem to be in that good of shape and he is someone that fat dudes can root for. I think this is a big part of the reason why Roy Nelson had such a huge following.

Although he was an underdog going into the fight against Marcos Rogerio de Lima, Sosoli was cheered the most perhaps out of everyone on the card that night. It all went pretty bad, pretty quickly though as a right hook landed really clean just after the one minute mark which resulted in a back mount and some pretty brutal ground and pound on the part of the Brazilian before the referee put a stop to the match at 1 minute 28 seconds in the very first round.

The future doesn't seem so bright for Sosoli who has lost his last 3 fights. If i had to guess, he will get scheduled for a rematch against ex Carolina Panther, Greg Hardy - whom he initially lost to by decision but the match was declared "no contest" after it was discovered that Hardy used an inhaler between rounds - which is illegal.

If Sosoli doesn't win that matchup, I think his career might be considered over as he has failed to impress in quite a while.