WEIDMAN WASN’T HAVING IT 😤
#UFC292 pic.twitter.com/Ilv3UCPfdb— ESPN MMA (@espnmma)
August 20, 2023
Brad
Tavares’ sympathies only go so far.
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Destructive leg kicks, a punishing jab and bulletproof takedown
defense carried the Hawaiian to a unanimous decision over returning
former
Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight champion Chris
Weidman in the featured UFC
292 prelim on Saturday at the TD Garden in Boston. All three
cageside judges submitted 30-27 scorecards for Tavares (20-8, 15-8
UFC), who rebounded from back-to-back losses to Dricus Du
Plessis and Bruno
Silva.
In his first appearance since suffering a career-threatening leg
injury in April 2021, Weidman (15-7, 11-7 UFC) looked tentative at
times and outgunned at others. Tavares wrecked his lead leg with
kicks and denied all of his takedown attempts. Weidman hobbled
visibly on his compromised base in the second round and never fully
recovered, as he was forced to switch stances and shift his
surgically repaired leg into the lead position. Tavares simply
picked his shots from the outside and circled away whenever danger
presented itself.
Meanwhile, Kill Cliff Fight Club export Gregory
Rodrigues bounced back from a Jan. 21 knockout loss to Brunno
Ferreira, as he disposed of Denis
Tiuliulin with ferocious ground-and-pound elbows in the first
round of their middleweight confrontation.
Tiuliulin (10-8, 1-3 UFC) met his end 1:43 into Round
1.
Rodrigues (14-5, 5-2 UFC) more or less brushed aside and
overmatched adversary. The ex-Legacy Fighting All8iance champion
secured a body-lock takedown and floated from side control to full
mount to the back. Devastating elbows followed, and when a
semi-conscious Tiuliulin did not respond to referee Bryan Miner’s
calls to defend himself, the stoppage was called.
It goes in the books as Rodrigues’ fastest finish in 19
professional appearances.
Elsewhere, Gracie United rep Kurt
Holobaugh subdued Austin
Hubbard with a triangle choke in the second round of “The
Ultimate Fighter 31” lightweight final.
Holobaugh (20-7, 1-4 UFC) drew the curtain 2:39 into Round
2, netting his first submission victory since Dec. 2,
2016.
Hubbard (15-7, 3-5 UFC) executed a pair of takedowns and
consolidated them with ground-and-pound in the first round but
struggled to find a foothold in the standup exchanges. Holobaugh
slammed home picture-perfect one-twos and leg kicks, slowly but
surely establishing himself as the superior martial artist. The
onetime Titan Fighting Championship titleholder bullied an
off-balance Hubbard to the floor in the middle stanza, wheeled to
the back and eventually climbed to full mount. Holobaugh threatened
with an armbar initially, then made a seamless transition to the
triangle choke and prompted a reluctant tapout.
The setback snapped Hubbard’s modest two-fight winning streak.
Not to be outdone, SBG Ireland’s Brad Katona
outlasted former Tachi Palace Fights champion Cody Gibson
to a three-round unanimous decision in “The Ultimate Fighter 31”
bantamweight final. Katona (13-2, 3-2 UFC) swept the scorecards
with 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27 marks from the cageside judges, as he
became the first man to win the reality series twice.
Gibson (19-9, 1-4 UFC) was a worthy and willing dance partner in
what turned into an absolute barnburner at 135 pounds. He marched
down the onetime Brave Combat Federation champion with merciless
forward pressure and connected with a variety of weapons, from
sharp one-twos and chopping right hands to low leg kicks at close
range and collar-tie uppercuts. It was not enough to keep Katona at
bay. The 31-year-old Canadian answered often, dazed Gibson with a
lightning-strike right hand in the second round and gave him pause
with repeated punches to his already badly damaged right eye in the
third. By the time it was over, they had combined to land more than
300 significant strikes against one another.
Katona, who also won Season 27 of “The Ultimate Fighter” in 2018,
has won five straight bouts.
Further down the undercard, Former Jungle Fight champion Natalia
Silva picked apart Andrea Lee
to a unanimous decision in a three-round flyweight affair. All
three cageside judges struck 30-27 scorecards for Silva (17-5-1,
4-0 UFC), who has rattled off 10 consecutive victories and carries
the look of a future contender at 125 pounds.
The 34-year-old Lee (13-8, 5-6 UFC) generated almost no offense of
note. Silva staggered the Texas native with a right cross in the
first round and bloodied her nose with repeated jabs. The
26-year-old Team Borracha kept her foot on the accelerator for 15
minutes and flexed her superiority in the third round, where she
continued to pile up points with multi-punch bursts and even sat
down Lee with a front kick to the chest.
Lee has lost three fights in a row.
Finally, Gile Ribeiro Team standout Karine
Silva turned away Maryna
Moroz with a guillotine choke in the first round of their
women’s flyweight rematch.
Moroz (11-5, 6-5 UFC) checked out 4:59 into Round 1, having been
finished for the first time in her 16-fight
career.
Silva (17-4, 3-0 UFC)—who submitted to an armbar from the Ukrainian
in their first meeting almost nine years ago—tore into the American
Top Team rep with clean punching combinations and kicks to the
body, legs and head. She executed a takedown with a little more
than a minute left on the clock, withstood a reversal and lured
Moroz into the fight-ending guillotine.
The 29-year-old Silva has stopped eight consecutive opponents,
seven of them inside one round.
In other action, “The Ultimate Fighter 29” semifinalist Andre
Petroski (10-1, 5-0 UFC) eked out a split decision—28-29,
29-28, 29-28—over onetime Resurrection Fighting Alliance champion
Gerald
Meerschaert (35-17, 10-9 UFC) in a three-round middleweight
pairing.