Mario Bautista had no trouble getting past Vinicius Oliveira. |
Getty/UFC
Mario
Bautista believes cutting excess weight made Vinicius
Oliveira slow in their fight on Saturday.
Bautista took on an up-and-coming Oliveira in the main event at
UFC Vegas 113 on Saturday at the Apex in Las Vegas. While some
were counting Bautista out, he absolutely walked through Oliveira
en route to a second-round submission win.
While it was Oliveira’s first five-rounder, “LokDog” started
looking sluggish early in the second round. Bautista revealed that
he initially thought that Oliveira was playing possum to try to
lure him into a knockout shot. However, Oliveira was just too slow
for Bautista, who saw everything coming his way. Bautista believes
that Oliveira weighing 165 pounds during fight week and cutting to
bantamweight might have had something to do with his lack of
speed.
Experience Pays Off
“I wasn’t sure if he was messing around, kind of trying to lure me
into these big shots,” Bautista said at the post-fight press
conference. “It was kind of what he did. It was easy to see. That
whole thing about him being 165 lbs [on fight week].. to me, that
means you’re slow. It makes you slow. I could see everything, I had
great eyes in there, all the experience I’ve had.”
Bautista (17-3) rebounded from a loss against Umar
Nurmagomedov with the win over Oliveira. Bautista was riding an
eight-fight winning streak before his loss against Nurmagomedov
last October. Meanwhile, Oliveira (23-4) was undefeated in four UFC
outings before his loss against Bautista.