Rhys McKee
finally put an elusive check in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship win column.
The former British Association of Mixed Martial Arts and Cage
Warriors Fighting Championship titleholder racked up three
knockdowns and forced a doctor stoppage on Daniel
Frunza in their featured
UFC on ESPN 65 welterweight prelim on Saturday at the UFC Apex
in Las Vegas. It was waved off in between the first and second
rounds.
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McKee (14-6-1, 1-4 UFC) cut loose with multi-punch bursts and
floored the Dana White’s Contender Series graduate with a left
hook, a clean one-two and an overhand left. Frunza (9-3, 0-1 UFC)
steadied himself amid the abuse but retreated to his corner after
the first round with serious damage to his right eye and a gnarly
cut to his upper lip. It was enough to warrant fight-ending concern
from the cageside physician.
Meanwhile, Dione
Barbosa put her Olympic-level judo skills to use and put away
Diana
Belbita with an arm-triangle choke in the first round of their
women’s flyweight skirmish. Barbosa (8-3, 2-1 UFC) closed the deal
4:13 into Round 1, winning for the fifth time in six
appearances. Belbita (15-10, 2-6 UFC) was outgunned athletically. Barbosa
obliged the House of Champions MMA with repeated standup exchanges
and excelled as the heavier hitter.
She secured a takedown with roughly 90 seconds to go in the first
round, moved immediately to full mount and cinched the arm-triangle
without much resistance. The tapout soon followed.
The 28-year-old Belbita has lost three fights in a row.
Further down the undercard, Syndicate MMA standout Loma
Lookboonmee married an active kicking game on the feet with
takedowns and punches on the ground, as she was awarded a unanimous
verdict over Istela
Nunes in a three-round women’s strawweight encounter.
Lookboonmee (10-3, 7-2 UFC) earned 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28 scores
from the assigned judges.
A short-notice substitution for Ariane
Carnelossi, Nunes (6-6, 0-5 UFC) remains winless in her
four-plus years on the UFC roster. Lookboonmee picked her spots,
exploited the Brazilian’s weaknesses and patiently waited for
openings to present themselves. Nunes made passes at multiple
leglocks in the second round but again had issues with consistency.
Lookboonmee executed two takedowns in the third round, piled up
significant control time and did enough with her ground-and-pound
and positional advances to avoid a restart.
Lookboonmee now finds herself on a four-fight winning streak.
Finally, ex-Deep champion and longtime Josh Barnett
protégé Victor
Henry rebounded from a Nov. 2 submission loss to Charles
Jourdain with a unanimous decision over Pedro
Falcao in a three-round bantamweight tilt. All three members of
the cageside judiciary scored it the same: 29-28 for Henry (25-7,
4-2 UFC).
Falcao (16-5, 0-2 UFC) completed a few takedowns but struggled to
string together meaningful offense. Henry dropped the Nova Uniao
rep with an overhand right inside the first five minutes and went
on to spring multiple reversals after being taken down, forcing the
Brazilian to use up valuable energy. Falcao had fewer and fewer
answers as time wore on. Henry utilized an effective sprawl down
the stretch, had his counterpart reeling late with a left
hook-right cross combo and gained some separation when it mattered
most.
The 32-year-old Falcao has suffered back-to-back defeats for the
second time as a pro.
In other action, Martin
Buday (15-2, 6-1 UFC) took a unanimous decision from Uran
Satybaldiev (8-1, 0-1 UFC) in a three-round heavyweight scrap,
drawing 29-28 marks from all three judges; and Talita
Alencar (6-1-1, 2-1 UFC) grounded, pounded and smothered
Vanessa
Demopoulos (11-7, 5-4 UFC) to a unanimous decision—30-26,
30-27, 30-27—in a three-round women’s strawweight pairing.