Holtzman smothers Horcher en route to 2nd straight victory

It was ugly, but Scott Holtzman picked up the W nonetheless.

For the bulk of three rounds, the 34-year-old scored takedowns and put in some solid work from the clinch to best fellow lightweight Darrell Horcher in a sweep of the scorecards for his second straight win at Saturday's UFC Fight Night 123 in Fresno, Calif.

Holtzman pursued the takedown early, and when Horcher's left hand got too cozy with his dome in the second round, he reverted right back to his wrestling and kept Horcher pinned to the canvas - notwithstanding a pair of questionable standups from referee Mike Beltran - while peppering him with ground-and-pound to secure the lopsided verdict.

The 30-year-old Horcher has now dropped two of his three bouts under the UFC banner.