SLICK SUBMISSION FROM BONFIM 😨#UFC291
is LIVE on ESPN+ PPV 🍿 pic.twitter.com/jIaAQnPaIH— ESPN MMA (@espnmma)
July 30, 2023
All
Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweights should be on high
alert as it relates to Gabriel
Bonfim.
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The unbeaten Cerrado MMA export disposed of Trevin
Giles with a guillotine choke in the first round of their
featured
UFC 291 prelim on Saturday at the Delta Center in Salt Lake
City. Giles (16-5, 7-5 UFC), who entered the cage on a two-fight
winning streak, raised the white flag of surrender 1:13 into Round
1.
Bonfim (15-0, 2-0 UFC) applied maximum pressure from the outset,
connected with a clubbing overhand left and secured a takedown
inside the first 40 seconds. He caught the guillotine during a
subsequent scramble, tightened his vice-like squeeze and elicited
the tapout.
Vergara Outpoints Overweight Salvador
Onetime Fury Fighting Championship titleholder C.J. Vergara
outstruck and outworked Vinicius
Salvador to a unanimous decision in a three-round flyweight
scrap. All three cageside judges struck 29-28 scorecards for
Vergara (12-4-1, 3-2 UFC), a 32-year-old Pete Spratt
protégé.
Salvador (14-6, 0-2 UFC)—who missed weight for the match by 2.5
pounds—committed to kicks to the upper and lower leg throughout an
uneventful first round. Lack of output plagued the Brazilian as the
bout progressed. Vergara pieced together body-head combinations
across the final 10 minutes, darted in and out of range, damaged
the outside of his opponent’s lead leg with kicks and kept momentum
in his corner.
Vergara has recorded eight wins in 10 outings.
Kopylov Kick Levels Ribeiro
Former Fight Nights Global champion Roman
Kopylov cut down Dana White’s Contender Series graduate
Claudio
Ribeiro with a picture-perfect head kick in the second round of
their middleweight encounter. Ribeiro (11-4, 1-2 UFC) bit the dust
33 seconds into Round 2.
The 32-year-old Kopylov (11-2, 3-2 UFC) patiently probed for
openings for much of the first round, piling up points with front
kicks to the body, leg kicks, stabbing left hands and a sneaky jab.
Ribeiro rattled the Russian with a right hand with time winding
down and flurried for a potential finish along the fence. It never
materialized. At the start of the middle stanza, Kopylov feinted
with his jab and fired the head kick behind it. The sickening sound
of bone-on-bone impact followed, as Ribeiro fell backward with a
distant stare in his eyes. Kopylov delivered one final hammerfist
before referee Marc Goddard
could arrive on the scene.
Kopylov will enter his next assignment on the strength of three
straight wins.
Matthews Choke Subdues Flowers
“The Ultimate Fighter Nations” alum Jake
Matthews dispatched promotional newcomer Darrius
Flowers with a rear-naked choke in the second round of their
welterweight tilt. A fill-in for Miguel
Baeza, Flowers (12-6-1, 0-1 UFC) checked out 2:37 into Round 2,
his four-fight winning streak at an end.
Matthews (19-6, 12-6 UFC) answered the Chicago Fight Team
representative’s initial burst of aggression with clean counters
and beautiful body blows. After Flowers required a brief respite
due to an accidental low blow in the second round, his situation
deteriorated rapidly. Matthews sprawled on a takedown, threatened
with a kimura and moved to full mount. Damaging punches forced
Flowers to turn away from contact, at which point he was open to be
choked. Matthews obliged.
The 28-year-old Matthews has won five of his last seven bouts.
Replacement Medic Torpedoes Semelsberger
Kings MMA product Uros Medic
put away Matthew
Semelsberger with a spinning back fist and follow-up punches in
the third round of their welterweight clash. A late replacement for
Yohan
Lainesse, Medic (9-1, 3-1 UFC) brought it to a close 2:36 into
Round 3.
Semelsberger (11-6, 5-4 UFC) seized the reins in a chaotic first
round, where he landed some jarring standing-to-ground punches
during one sequence and floored his counterpart with a surgical
right hand in another. However, the resilient Medic was unwilling
to go away quietly. He turned the tide in a closely contested
middle stanza and exploited a visibly fatigued Semelsberger in the
third. Medic uncorked a thudding two-punch combination, backed the
Crazy 88 MMA standout to the fence and cut loose with a spinning
backfist. He connected with the forearm, and Semelsberger hit the
canvas in a dazed state. More punches followed, necessitating the
stoppage.
Medic has rattled off back-to-back victories since his September
2021 submission defeat to Jalin
Turner.
Maverick Armbar Submits Cachoeira
Elevation Fight Team’s Miranda
Maverick turned away Priscila
Cachoeira with an armbar in the third round of their women’s
flyweight pairing. A short-notice substitution for Joanne Wood,
Maverick (12-5, 5-3 UFC) drew the curtain 2:11 into Round 3.
Cachoeira (12-5, 4-5 UFC) was a non-factor. Maverick struck for
takedowns in all three rounds, moved from one dominant position to
the next—she achieved full mount twice—and applied her
ground-and-pound. She climbed to mount against the MMA Masters rep
midway through the third round, transitioned to the armbar and
activated her hips to prompt the tapout.
The loss snapped Cachoeira’s two-fight winning streak.