Ramon
Taveras stood toe to toe and fought fire with fire when the
stakes were highest.
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The Bulldog Boxing export was one of five hopefuls to nail down an
Ultimate Fighting Championship contract during
Week 10 of
Dana White’s Contender Series, as he buried Cortavious
Romious with first-round punches on Tuesday at the UFC Apex in
Las Vegas.
Taveras (9-2, 1-1 DWCS) sank the St. Charles MMA rep 29 seconds
into Round 1.
Romious (5-2, 0-1 DWCS) went out on his shield. He cut loose with
power punches and body kicks, but left too many defensive holes for
his opponent to exploit. Taveras dropped him twice in the middle of
violent exchanges, then connected with a devastating left hook that
sent him crashing to the canvas in a dazed and confused state. More
punches followed, prompting referee Herb Dean to call for the
stoppage.
Flyweight Andre Lima,
featherweight Connor
Matthews, lightweight Marquel
Mederos and bantamweight Lucas Rocha
are set to join Taveras on the UFC roster.
Team Lucas Mineiro’s Lima stayed undefeated, as he outstruck and
outhustled Rickson
Thai Zenidim Bueno to a unanimous decision in their three-round
flyweight clash. Lima (7-0, 1-0 DWCS) swept the scorecards with
matching 30-27 marks from all three members of the cageside
judiciary.
A former Hard Combat champion, Bueno (14-2, 0-1 DWCS) was far too
passive and spent much of the first two rounds circling around cage
with no obvious purpose. Lima remained patient despite his visible
frustrations and piled up points with kicks to all levels, a potent
jab and a few straight right hands. Bueno engaged his fellow
Brazilian in the clinch midway through the third round but had
little to offer. Lima met him with close-range knee strikes,
executed a takedown and chipped away with hammerfists and short
punches from the top. The 24-year-old sat down on a guillotine
choke in the waning seconds but could not pull off the desired
finish.
Bueno has lost two of his past three fights after starting his
career with 13 straight victories.
Meanwhile, New England Cartel’s Matthews leaned on body kicks,
takedowns and merciless pressure in claiming a hard-fought
unanimous decision over the previously unbeaten Jair Farias
in a three-round featherweight scrap. All three cageside judges
sided with Matthews (7-1, 1-1 DWCS): 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28.
Farias (10-1, 0-1 DWCS) had his moments, as he pieced together some
beautiful three- and four-punch volleys, connected with leg kicks
and countered effectively at times. However, Matthews turned the
tide with a dominant Round 2. He swarmed the Brazilian with kicks,
focused his attack on the body, secured multiple takedowns and even
threatened with a reverse triangle choke on the ground. A
back-and-forth third round saw an exhausted Farias find renewed
purpose with some clean second-wind combinations. Matthews
responded with another takedown, briefly progressed to full mount
and continued his assault on the Fighting Nerds rep’s midsection
with punches and kicks.
Matthews will carry a modest two-fight winning streak into his next
assignment.
Further down the card, Factory X’s Mederos put away Issa Isakov
with a knee strike and follow-up punches in the first round of
their lightweight affair. Mederos (8-1, 1-0 DWCS) brought it to a
close 4:09 into Round 1, extending his winning streak to five
bouts.
Isakov (12-4, 0-1 DWCS) pursued clinches and takedowns but went
nowhere with those efforts. Mederos flummoxed the Soko Training
Center export with feints and stance switches, battered the lead
leg with kicks and pieced together clean punching combinations.
He caught the Isakov with a knee to the head as he ducked in for a
takedown, folded him where he stood and slammed the door with
punches.
The setback was Isakov’s first since April 1, 2021.
Elsewhere, Renovacao Coari Team’s Rocha wiped out Shooto Brazil
champion Davi
Bittencourt with a perfectly timed knee strike and follow-up
punches in the second round of their bantamweight tilt.
Rocha (17-1, 1-0 DWCS) drew the curtain 18 seconds into Round
2.
Bittencourt (14-3, 1-0 DWCS) scored with repeated takedowns and mat
returns throughout a one-sided first round. The D.O. Methodology
rep advanced to the back on multiple occasions and threatened with
a rear-naked choke in the closing seconds but failed to finish what
he started. Rocha intercepted him with a beautiful knee to the head
during their first exchange in the middle stanza, sent him into a
nosedive, trailed him to the canvas and mopped up what was left
with unanswered punches.
Rocha, 23, has rattled off six consecutive victories.
Finally, still-green Agoge Combatives product Torrez
Finney kept his perfect professional record intact and did so
while staring down adversity, as he subdued Yuri
Panferov with a rear-naked choke in the second round of their
middleweight confrontation.
Finney (7-0, 1-0 DWCS) drew the curtain 2:09 into Round
2.
Penferov (6-1, 0-1 DWCS) countered his powerfully built
counterpart’s high-amplitude takedowns and clinches with
close-range knees and elbows to the side of the head, all while
capitalizing on opportunities whenever they separated. He rocked
Finney more than once with hooks from both hands but could not nail
down the stoppage. Panferov encountered additional resistance on
the feet in the middle stanza and absorbed a right hook before
conceding another takedown. Finney climbed to the back, made a pass
at a face crank, reassessed his options and applied his
ground-and-pound. From there, he moved on the choke, tightened his
squeeze and forced the tapout.
Finney, 24, has finished six of his first seven opponents.