Allan
Nascimento shook off the rust and walked out of the cage with
his arm raised.
The Chute Boxe standout made his long-awaited return to the
Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight division and took a
unanimous decision from Jafel Filho
in their featured
UFC on ESPN 68 prelim on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
All three members of the assigned judiciary turned in 29-28 scores
for Nascimento (21-6, 3-1 UFC), who suited up for the first time
since Jan. 14, 2023.
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Filho (16-4, 2-2 UFC) was his own worst enemy. The former Shooto
Brazil champion was dominant in the first round, where he climbed
to full mount twice and nearly finished it with a guillotine choke.
From there, Filho’s overzealousness played into his opponent’s
hands. Nascimento sprang multiple reversals in the second and third
rounds, climbed to advantageous positions and bled valuable time
off the clock. He tripped Filho to the floor with roughly a minute
to go in the match, progressed to the back and secured himself with
a body triangle. With that, the deal was sealed.
Meanwhile, Syndicate MMA export Jordan
Leavitt put “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 31 winner Kurt
Holobaugh to sleep with an anaconda choke in the first round of
their lightweight clash.
Holobaugh (21-10, 2-7 UFC) lost consciousness 99 seconds into Round
1, suffering the second submission defeat of his 32-fight
career.
The 29-year-old Leavitt (12-3, 5-3 UFC) executed a belly-to-back
suplex, set off a scramble and threatened with a guillotine before
he transitioned to the anaconda choke. Holobaugh struggled briefly
to free himself, though it soon became clear that the lights were
on but nobody was home.
Leavitt has won four of his past six bouts.
Further down the undercard, Valon Team rep Bolaji Oki
maximized his size and strength advantages, as he laid claim to a
unanimous decision over Michael
Aswell in their three-round lightweight scrap. Oki (10-2, 2-1
UFC) swept the scorecards with matching 29-28 marks from the
judges.
A short-notice substitution for MarQuel
Mederos, Aswell (10-3, 0-1 UFC) impressed in his organizational
debut. The undersized Daniel
Pineda protégé walked Oki into his punches and knocked him
off-balance with a quick volley near the end of the first round.
However, momentum proved elusive. Oki marched forward confidently
across the final 10 minutes, snapped the ex-Fury Fighting
Championship titleholder’s head sideways with left hooks on more
than one occasion and bullied him backward. Aswell grew less and
less effective as time wore on and continued to cede ground to his
adversary when it mattered most.
Oki, 29, has rattled off 10 wins in 11 appearances.
Finally, Alice
Ardelean rebounded from back-to-back losses to Shauna
Bannon and Melissa
Martinez with a unanimous decision over former Invicta Fighting
Championships titleholder Rayanne
dos Santos in their three-round women’s strawweight tilt. All
three judges sided with Ardelean (10-7, 1-2 UFC): 30-27, 29-28 and
29-28.
Dos Santos (14-9, 0-3 UFC) was a step behind from the start.
Ardelean called upon output and forward aggression, as she pieced
together two-, three- and four-punch volleys, unleashed occasional
leg kicks, leaned into her jab and fired right hands over the top.
Dos Santos picked up her pace in the third round—she opened a small
cut under the counterpart’s left eye—but could not nail down the
finish she needed.
A natural atomweight, dos Santos has lost three fights in a row.