Dominick
Reyes appears to have steadied himself in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight division.
The Teixeira MMA export stopped former Cage Fury Fighting
Championships titleholder Anthony
Smith with punches and elbows in the second round of their
featured UFC
310 prelim on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. In his
first assignment since the death of longtime friend and mentor
Scott Morton, Smith (38-21, 13-11 UFC) met his end 4:46 into Round
2.
Reyes (14-4, 8-4 UFC) employed an active kicking game to all levels
and called upon potent jab-cross combos.
Smith swooped in for a single-leg takedown attempt early in the
second round, only to be met with digging elbows. Reyes continued
to chip away with shots to the side of the head, maintained a
steady pace and left referee Marc Goddard no choice but to
intervene.
Meanwhile, Kill Cliff Fight Club’s Vicente
Luque put Themba
Gorimbo to sleep with an anaconda choke in the first round of
their welterweight clash. A short-notice replacement for Nick Diaz,
Gorimbo (14-5, 4-2 UFC)
drifted into the abyss 52 seconds into Round 1.
Luque (23-10-1, 16-6 UFC) sat down the Xtreme Couture rep with a
counter right hook, then capitalized on the situation. He snaked
his arms into place as Gorimbo tried to get back to his feet,
rolled into his squeeze and waited for his counterpart to lose his
grip on reality.
It was the first sub-minute finish of Luque’s outstanding 34-fight
career.
Further down the undercard, American Top Team standout Movsar
Evloev kept his perfect professional record intact with a
unanimous decision over Aljamain
Sterling in an engaging three-round featherweight battle. All
three cageside judges scored it the same: 29-28 for Evloev (19-0,
9-0 UFC).
Sterling (24-5, 16-5 UFC) went stride for stride with the Russian
for much of the match, which was marked by tactical takedowns, wild
scrambles and explosive reversals. Evloev used a textbook Granby
roll to achieve top position midway through the third round,
applied some ground-and-pound and ultimately progressed to the
back. Time ran out before Sterling could stage a response.
Evloev, 30, has gone the distance in all nine of his UFC
victories.
Elsewhere, onetime Legacy Fighting Alliance champion Eryk Anders
turned away Chris
Weidman with punches in the second round of their catchweight
confrontation at 195 pounds. Anders (17-8, 9-8 UFC) closed it out
4:51 into Round 1, winning for the third time in four
appearances.
Weidman (16-8, 12-8 UFC) had his moments—he decked the former
University of Alabama linebacker with a counter left hook in the
first round—but ran out of gas in the middle stanza.
There, Anders freed himself from an ill-advised guillotine attempt,
set up in half guard and let fly with a sustained, minutes-long
burst of ground-and-pound that resulted in the
stoppage.
Having lost three of his last four bouts, the 40-year-old Weidman
looks less and less like the man who once ruled the middleweight
division.
Deeper into the preliminary draw, “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 15
winner Michael
Chiesa celebrated his 37th birthday in style and took care of
Max
Griffin with a rear-naked choke in the third round of their
welterweight encounter. Griffin (20-11, 8-9 UFC), who had never
before been submitted, conceded defeat 1:56 into Round 3.
Chiesa (18-7, 13-7 UFC) wore down the ex-Tachi Palace Fights
titleholder with awkward but effective standup, repeated takedowns
and a relentless clinch.
He grounded Griffin a little more than a minute into the third
round, progressed to the back, secured position with a body
triangle and cinched the choke for the finish.
The 39-year-old Griffin has alternated wins and losses in each of
his past five appearances.
Griffin was not the only competitor to flex his submission skills,
as Chase
Hooper disposed of former Strikeforce champion Clay Guida
with an armbar in the first round of their lightweight affair.
Guida (38-25, 18-19 UFC) raised the white flag of surrender 3:41
into Round 1, suffering his third consecutive setback.
The 25-year-old Hooper (15-3-1, 7-3 UFC) opened a cut near the Team
Alpha Male rep’s eye with slashing left hands and executed multiple
takedowns.
He eventually scrambled onto Guida’s back, transitioned to the
armbar, cut off avenues of escape and activated his hips to prompt
the tapout.
Hooper will ride a four-fight winning streak into his next
assignment.
Finally, two-time Dana White’s Contender Series alum Kennedy
Nzechukwu filled in as a short-notice replacement for Tallison
Teixeira and put away Lukasz
Brzeski with punches in the first round of their heavyweight
pairing. Brzeski (9-5-1, 1-5 UFC) bowed out 4:51 into Round 1,
losing for the second time in as many outings.
Nzechukwu (14-5, 8-5 UFC) stepped forward behind range-finding
jabs, sharp front kicks to the body and the occasional straight
left. Late in the first round,
he floored Brzeski with a clean counter right hook, gave chase with
cruel intentions and cleaned up the leftovers with
hammerfists.
The 32-year-old Nzechukwu has rattled off back-to-back
victories.
In other action, an overweight Bryan
Battle (12-2, 7-1 UFC) eked out a split decision—28-29, 29-28,
29-28—over onetime Ring of Combat champion Randy Brown
(19-6, 13-6 UFC) in a three-round welterweight scrap; and former
Fury Fighting Championship titleholder Joshua Van
(12-2, 5-1 UFC) rode crisp combination punching to a unanimous
decision over American Top Team’s Cody Durden
(17-7-1, 6-5-1 UFC) in a three-round flyweight tilt, earning 29-28,
30-26 and 30-27 scores from the cageside judges.