The second verse was different from the first.
Mackenzie
Dern avenged a 2019 decision defeat to Amanda
Ribas and continued to reassert herself as serious contender in
the
Ultimate Fighting Championship women’s strawweight division, as
she submitted the Brazilian with an armbar in the third round of
their
UFC Fight Night 249 headliner on Saturday at the UFC Apex in
Las Vegas.
Ribas (13-6, 7-5 UFC) raised the white flag 4:56 into Round
3.
Advertisement
The rivals traded strikes, takedowns and positional control through
two competitive rounds. Ribas grounded the 2015 Abu Dhabi Combat
Club Submission Fighting World Championships hold medalist early in
the third, only to slowly wander into danger. Dern swept into mount
under threat of an armbar and pounded away with elbows and punches
before once again isolating a limb. She sat back on the armbar,
activated her hips with time running out and left Ribas no choice
but to capitulate.
Meanwhile, American Top Team mainstay Santiago
Ponzinibbio disposed of Carlston
Harris with punches in the third round of their welterweight
co-main event.
Referee Kerry Hatley called for the standing stoppage while a dazed
Harris (19-7, 4-3 UFC) was returning fire.
Ponzinibbio (30-8, 12-7 UFC) withstood a furious assault from the
ex-Brave Combat Federation titleholder in a first round that saw
him survive multiple knockdowns. Harris’ awkward striking gave the
Argentinian fits, as he paired left hooks with clubbing overhand
rights. Ponzinibbio stayed the course, leaned on his experience,
marked up the Renovacao Fight Team rep with thudding punches of his
own and slowly turned the tide in his favor. He clipped Harris with
three right crosses in the third round, bullied him to the canvas
and let fly with punches. It was not enough initially. Harris
returned to a standing position, hit the deck again on the end of a
left hook, stood and absorbed more punishment along the fence, at
which point Hatley intervened.
The win was Ponzinibbio’s first since December 2022.
Further down the card, Dana White’s Contender Series graduate
Cesar
Almeida short-circuited Abdul
Razak Alhassan with a savage counter left hook in the first
round of their middleweight firefight.
Almeida (7-1, 3-1 UFC) closed it out 4:16 into Round
1.
Alhassan (12-7, 6-7 UFC) sat down the Brazilian on a surgical right
cross with a little more than a minute remaining in the opening
stanza and flurried with ground-and-pound for a potential finish.
Almeida moved back to an upright position, at which point he was
met with more aggression from “Judo Thunder.” Alhassan cut loose
with wild power punches, left himself exposed and paid a steep
price. Almeida detonated a vicious left hook on the jaw and sent
the 39-year-old Elevation Fight Team product crashing violently to
the canvas, stiff, unconscious and supine.
Almeida has delivered five of his seven career victories by
knockout or technical knockout, four of them inside one round.
Elsewhere, former Fight Nights Global champion Roman
Kopylov cut down Chris
Curtis with a last-second head kick in the third round of their
middleweight feature.
Curtis (31-12, 5-4 UFC) met his end 4:59 into Round 3, losing for
the second time in as many outings.
They went for tit for tat for nearly 15 full minutes, trading
punches and kicks while paying now mind to their own physical
well-being. Kopylov (14-3, 6-3 UFC) was more varied in his attack
but had issues keeping the Xtreme Couture veteran at bay. Curtis
doubled and tripled up on his jab, opened a cut above his
opponent’s right eye in the second round and took care of business
whenever he moved forward, often ripping the body with hooks from
both hands. Kopylov found a second wind in Round 3, where he
staggered the ex-CES MMA champion more than once. With time winding
down, he felled Curtis with a head kick and prompted a puzzling
stoppage from referee Mark Smith despite not following up with any
additional shots. Curtis was incensed with Smith in the immediate
aftermath.
Kopylov has racked up six victories across his past seven
appearances.
Deeper into the draw, Roufusport’s Christian
Rodriguez outstruck the previously unbeaten Austin
Bashi to a unanimous decision in their three-round
featherweight attraction. All three members of the cageside
judiciary scored it the same: 29-28 for Rodriguez (12-2, 5-2
UFC).
Bashi (13-1, 0-1 UFC) endured a difficult first round, where the
Octagon debutant was greeted by a variety of strikes and threatened
with a guillotine choke. The prospect kept his composure and
rallied in the middle stanza, as he executed multiple takedowns,
piled up considerable control time and scored with intermittent
ground-and-pound. It was not enough to knock Rodriguez off his
mark. The Duke Roufus protégé tightened up his takedown across the
final five minutes and followed multi-punch volleys with ringing
knee strikes up the middle, doing more than enough damage to curry
the necessary favor on the scorecards.
Rodriguez, 27, has won five of his past six bouts.
Finally, Xtreme Couture standout Punahele
Soriano put away Uros Medic
with punches in the first round of their welterweight appetizer.
Medic (10-3, 4-3 UFC) checked out 31 seconds into Round 1,
suffering the first knockout loss of his 13-fight
career.
Soriano (11-4, 5-4 UFC) showed no regard for his opponent’s skills.
He absorbed a straight left to the body, backed up Medic with a
glancing left hand and floored him with a clean right hook. Soriano
followed him to the canvas and polished off his third sub-minute
finish as a professional.
The 32-year-old Soriano has recorded back-to-back victories since
he moved to 170 pounds.
Continue Reading »
UFC Fight Night 249 Prelims: Surging Tulio Mauls Potieria