Malcolm
Wellmaker dropped the hammer.
The Faglier’s MMA rep was one of four hopefuls to nail down an
Ultimate Fighting Championship contract during
Week 3 of
Dana White’s Contender Series, as he punched out Adam
Bramhald in the first round of their bantamweight showcase on
Tuesday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Bramhald (13-3, 0-1 DWCS)
crashed and burned 2:29 into Round 1, his 11-fight winning streak
having run its course.
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Wellmaker (8-0, 1-0 DWCS) operated behind a punishing jab, absorbed
a few leg kicks and waited for an opportunity to present itself.
The Augusta, Georgia, native countered a jab from Bramhald with a
crushing counter right hook and dropped the Asylum Vale Tudo where
he stood. No follow-up shots were necessary.
Middleweight Marco Tulio
will join Wellmaker on the UFC roster, along with featherweight
Bogdan
Grad and middleweight Andrey
Pulyaev.
Chute Boxe’s Tulio buried Hexagone MMA champion Matthieu
Letho Duclos with a spinning back kick to the body and
follow-up punches in the second round of their middleweight
feature. Duclos (6-3, 0-1 DWCS) bowed out 2:38 into Round 2,
suffering his first setback in more than two years.
Tulio (12-1, 2-0 UFC) stayed patient, tenderized the Frenchman’s
lead leg with kicks and stepped forward into offensive bursts.
Midway through the middle stanza, the Diego Lima protégé punctuated
a multi-strike volley with a fight-altering spinning back kick to
the gut. His heel struck Duclos’ liver, forced him to the canvas in
a defensive shell and left him helpless against the punches that
fell next.
The 29-year-old Tulio has pieced together eight straight
victories.
Meanwhile, the determined Grad rode a multi-pronged standup attack
to a split decision over Fury Fighting Championship titleholder
Michael
Aswell in a hotly contested three-round featherweight
attraction. All three members of the cageside judiciary scored it
29-28, two of them for Grad (14-2, 1-1 DWCS).
Aswell (9-2, 0-1 DWCS) relied almost exclusively on clean one-twos
for much of the 15-minute encounter. Grad answered with aggressive
punching volleys, kicks to all levels and merciless forward
pressure. He opened a cut on Aswell’s eyelid with a slashing elbow
strike in the second round and continued to target the wound in the
third. By the time it was over, the gash had grown to well over an
inch long. Nevertheless, Aswell stayed busy and overwhelmed the
Austria-based Romanian with high-volume striking—the Saul Soliz and
Daniel
Pineda disciple seemed to rattle Grad with a series of
close-range body shots at one point—across the final five minutes,
only to fall short on the scorecards.
Grad, 28, has won three fights in a row.
Elsewhere, Storm Shlemenko Fight Team’s Pulyaev took care of
business with high-output striking and sound takedown defense, as
he laid claim to a unanimous decision over Liam
Anderson in a three-round middleweight affair. Pulyaev (9-2,
1-0 DWCS) swept the scorecards with matching 30-27 marks from the
judges.
Anderson (6-3, 0-1 DWCS) made some progress in a few ground
exchanges but had no way to get the Russian to the mat on a
consistent basis. On the feet, Pulyaev hammered the Team Empire
standout’s body and legs with crushing kicks, picked him off with
jabs and threw in a handful of close-range elbow strikes for good
measure. Anderson had his chances—he advanced to full mount late in
the second round—but failed to capitalize on them.
The 26-year-old Pulyaev now finds himself on a five-fight winning
streak.
Finally, Fortis MMA prospect Nick
Piccininni leaned on takedowns and positional advances to eke
out a contentious split decision over Jack Duffy
in a three-round flyweight appetizer. All three cageside judges
turned in 29-28 scorecards, two of them siding with the undefeated
Piccininni (7-0, 1-0 DWCS).
Duffy (7-1, 0-1 DWCS) deployed a hyperactive guard and proved to be
vastly superior in the standup exchanges. He beat up Piccininni’s
lead leg with repeated kicks, probed with his jab and incorporated
a few spinning attacks at opportune times. A three-time NCAA
All-American wrestler at Oklahoma State University, Piccininni
executed multiple takedowns in the second and third rounds,
progressed to the back with a body triangle and piled up points
with moderate ground-and-pound. Duffy called upon standing elbow
strikes, the occasional front kick to the face and a spinning back
kick to the body in the latter stages of the fight but failed to
fully counteract his opponent’s efforts in the wrestling and
grappling exchanges.
Neither Piccininni nor Duffy was awarded a contract.