A “Little Mosquito” is starting to make a big buzz in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight division.
Advertisement
In the featured preliminary bout of
UFC 312 on Saturday in Sydney, Gabriel
Santos (12-2) survived an early scare, showed off a complete
MMA skill set and earned a dominant finish over Jack
Jenkins (13-4, 1 NC). A measured kickboxing match turned wild
in a hurry when Jenkins uncorked a head kick that floored
“Mosquitinho.” Jenkins swarmed for the finish as the crowd
exploded, but Santos recovered his wits and ensnared Jenkins in a
deep triangle choke. It looked for a few tense moments as if
Jenkins was going to be forced to tap or take a nap, but he managed
to extricate his neck, only to have Santos switch to an armbar.
Jenkins fought that off as well, and made it back to his feet, but
Santos dragged him back down and finished the frame in top
position. Santos wasted little time in bringing things back to the
canvas in the middle round, refuting a Jenkins takedown attempt and
then answering with his own, setting up shop in Jenkins’ guard and
pelting him with short strikes for nearly three full minutes,
punctuating the frame with a diving, standing-to-ground punch at
the horn.
Santos kept rolling in Round 3, lighting Jenkins up with a flush
front kick to the face in the opening moments, then taking him
down. From there, things moved quickly:
Santos took Jenkins’ back, applied a body triangle from back mount,
and wrapped up the Aussie’s neck with a tight rear-naked
choke. After a few seconds of futile struggle, “Phar”
was forced to ask out of the bout at 2 minutes, 6 seconds of the
final round. With the emphatic win, the 28-year-old Brazilian moved
to 2-2 in the UFC, while Jenkins dropped to 3-2.
Nolan Outlasts Borshchev
The “Big Train” kept a-rolling at lightweight, as Tom Nolan
(9-1) showed off well-rounded skills in picking up a win over
Viacheslav
Borshchev (8-5-1). Nolan appeared primed to take advantage of
the former kickboxer’s liabilities on the ground, as he took
Borshchev’s back standing, dragged him to the floor and threatened
to finish the fight with an arm-triangle choke. Borshchev survived
and escaped, but Nolan likely got the better of the exchanges on
the feet as well. That dynamic held up in Round 2; Nolan put “Slava
Claus” in peril with a choke attempt, which may have made the
difference in a round in which Borshchev made up ground in the
striking. The third round saw Borshchev finally slow down Nolan’s
wrestling, leading to an early sequence in which he kicked the
taller man from the “up” position of Ali-Inoki. Borshchev picked up
momentum as the round wore on, turning aside more of Nolan’s
takedown attempts, taking top position and landing ground strikes.
The Russian by way of California closed out strong, dropping
punches before going for a leglock in the final seconds, but it was
too little, too late as the judges awarded the fight to Nolan by
29-28, 29-28 and 30-27 tallies. With the hard-earned win, his
second straight since a shocking knockout loss to Nikolas
Motta a year ago, the towering Aussie moved to 3-1 in the UFC,
while Borshchev fell to 3-4-1.
Wang Routs Brasil
Tasked with bouncing back from her first career loss, Cong Wang
(7-1) did her best impression of a snowball rolling downhill as she
overcame a strong start by Bruna
Brasil (10-5-1) and turned an intriguing clash of flyweight
strikers into a laugher by fight’s end. In Round 1, Brasil’s calf
kicks gave Wang trouble early, marking up her left leg and forcing
her to contemplate stance switches at several points. Wang found
opportunities to land her own offense, however, catching Brasil
with hard punches to the body and head. Wang appeared to pick up
confidence and momentum throughout Round 1, which carried over into
the middle frame, as Wang blunted Brasil’s leg kicks by matching
forward, countering with punches upstairs and landing some low
kicks of her own. By the end of Round 2, Brasil’s output had dried
up to nearly nil, and Wang opened up in response, throwing hard
shots with both hands and forcing Brasil into full retreat in the
final minute. Heading into the final round, Brasil’s coaches did
their level best to light a fire under their fighter, but she once
again struggled to pull the trigger against the composed, crisp
combination punching from the former wushu sanda champ. Wang put a
punctuation mark on the performance with a nice takedown late, but
the result was all but in the books. All three cageside judges saw
the fight 30-27 for Wang, who moved to 2-1 in the promotion; Brasil
fell to 2-3 with the demoralizing loss.
Topuria Tops Thicknesse in Battle of Newcomers
Alexandre Topuria (6-1) made a successful debut, using power
punching and effective wrestling to stay a step ahead of fellow
Octagon debutant Colby
Thicknesse (7-1) in their bantamweight matchup. The older
brother of UFC featherweight champ Ilia
Topuria was cautious as the fight opened, making his reads as
the taller Thicknesse took the outside, chipped away with low kicks
and stayed mobile. Topuria came alive midway through the first
round, catching Thicknesse with a big right hand that put the
Aussie on wobbly legs. He could not capitalize on the moment but
closed out the round emphatically with a massive suplex. Topuria
remained aggressive in Round 2, marching forward in a compact
boxing stance reminiscent of his more famous sibling and uncoiling
with tight hooks and a vicious spinning wheel kick attempt that
missed by a hair. Thicknesse was game, sliding around the perimeter
of the Octagon and answering with jabs and low kicks, but the
Spaniard’s forward motion and obvious power advantage appeared to
carry the round. Topuria went back to his wrestling early in the
final round, dragging Thicknesse down and threatening to take his
back, but Thicknesse escaped without significant damage or
positional peril. Topuria persisted in working to bring the fight
to the canvas, leading to an entertaining ground sequence in which
he was forced to defend himself from a series of kimura and rubber
guard attacks by the lanky Australian. Topuria fought through them
all, and ended the fight in top position, throwing short punches as
the horn sounded. The judges rewarded him with unanimous 30-27
scores, moving him to 1-0 in the UFC as Thicknesse, who stepped up
on two weeks’ notice for the injured Cody
Haddon, likely made a few believers in the losing effort, fell
to 0-1.
Rong Tops Steele in Slugfest
Zhu
Rong (26-6) continued his lightweight resurgence, turning aside
previously undefeated prospect Kody Steele
(7-1) in a wild prelim scrap. Steele looked sharp in the early
going, parlaying his apparent speed advantage on the feet into
success as he bounced into range and landed clean punches on the
taller man, then scored an easy takedown. Rong was taking his foe’s
measure, though, and in the middle of the round he caught Steele
with a big left hook that rocked him badly. Far from backing down,
that only spurred Steele into greater aggression, and the two
lightweights proceeded to elevate Round 1 into a “Round of the
Year” contender as they blistered one another with big punches and
numerous swings of momentum over the final three minutes of the
round. Rong got the better of the chaos, a dynamic that held up
over the remaining two rounds. Steele, to his credit, never backed
down, and continued to look for any possible route to victory,
including a brief try at a leglock in Round 2, but once Rong got
into gear he was simply too sharp and accurate on the feet for the
newcomer. Rong’s jab, in particular, stymied Steele over the final
10 minutes of the fight, denying him the close quarters exchanges
he sought. The former training partners abandoned all caution in
the closing seconds, swinging away, but while both men landed,
nothing happened to change the course of the fight. The resurgent
Rong picked up the win by 30-27 scores all around, elevating his
mark to 2-3 across two separate stints in the UFC and reinforcing
the impression that he is a changed fighter since his return;
Steele fell to 0-1 with the valiant showing in defeat.
Micallef Kicks Past Jousset
In an all-Oceanic welterweight tilt, New Zealand’s Jonathan
Micallef (8-1) made a statement, as he fed French-born Aussie
Kevin
Jousset (10-4) a steady diet of kicks that left Jousset’s ribs
black and blue. The debuting Micallef, fresh from a standout
showing on
Dana White’s Contender Series, established his southpaw kicking
game immediately against the towering Jousset. In the first frame,
Micallef’s kicks quickly reddened, then blackened Jousset’s right
side, and when Jousset lowered his guard, he went upstairs with a
left head kick that dropped him. Jousset recovered right away, but
the first two rounds were largely defined by Micallef’s steady
stream of bruising kicks against Jousset’s occasional clean punches
to the head. Clearly behind going into the final round, Jousset
stepped on the gas late, and his aggression and forward movement
blunted Micallef’s kicking game enough to win him the frame. The
judges concurred, awarding the fight to Micallef by unanimous 29-28
scores.
Salkilld Sparks Jubli
Quillan
Salkilld (8-1) got the card—and his UFC career—off to a
sizzling start, crushing Anshul
Jubli (7-2) with a huge right hand in the opening seconds of
their lightweight clash. After a couple of tentative strikes,
Salkilld answered a glancing body punch with a right hook that
caught Jubli directly behind the left ear, crumpling him in his
tracks. Referee Jim Perdios dived in immediately for
the stoppage, eliciting a brief protest from the dazed “King of
Lions,” but it goes down as a 19-second TKO win for the Aussie, who
moved to 1-0 in the promotion; Jubli fell to 1-2 since graduating
from the first season of “Road to UFC.”