Cody
Garbrandt, if nothing else, kept his foot in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship door.
The Xtreme Couture export outstruck and outmaneuvered a painfully
inactive Trevin
Jones to a unanimous decision in their featured UFC
285 bantamweight prelim on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las
Vegas. All three members of the cageside judiciary struck 29-28
scorecards.
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Garbrandt (13-5, 8-5 UFC) picked his spots through the first 10
minutes, steered clear of danger and kept his feet moving. He
delivered a pair of takedowns in the second round and moved to the
back before briefly threatening with a rear-naked choke. Jones
(13-10, 1-4 UFC) finally got in gear in Round 3, where he connected
with a few powerful left hands and climbed into top position.
However, the finish he needed failed to materialize.
In the penultimate prelim, former KSW champion Dricus Du
Plessis wiped out Derek
Brunson with
punches in the second round of their middleweight
clash. Du Plessis (19-2, 5-0 UFC) sealed the deal 4:59
into Round 2, as he remained unbeaten inside the Octagon. The 39-year-old Brunson (23-9, 14-7 UFC) had the South African
reeling with clubbing left hands and largely outgrappled him across
a back-and-forth first round. However, the effort he exerted seemed
to push his body beyond its bounds. Du Plessis stepped on the
accelerator in the middle stanza, connected liberally with both
hands and eventually powered into top position once his exhausted
counterpart collapsed. Elbows and punches followed, prompting the
Brunson corner to toss in the towel.
Du Plessis will ride a seven-fight winning streak into his next
assignment.
Meanwhile, volume punching and opportunistic takedowns carried
ex-Jungle Fight titleholder Amanda
Ribas to a unanimous decision over Viviane
Araujo in a three-round women’s flyweight battle at 125 pounds.
All three cageside judges scored it for Ribas (11-3, 6-2 UFC):
29-27, 30-26 and 30-27.
Araujo (11-5, 5-4 UFC) nearly cinched a guillotine choke in the
first round and later staggered her fellow Brazilian with a
chopping right hand. Ribas weathered those difficulties and turned
up the heat across the final 10 minutes. She dropped Araujo with a
counter right early in the second round, took top position and
moved from half guard to three-quarter mount before transitioning
to the back. Ribas maintained her pace down the stretch, executed a
takedown with a little more than a minute remaining in Round 3 and
dodged a Hail Mary armbar attempt from the onetime Pancrase
champion.
The 36-year-old Araujo has lost three of her past five fights.
Elsewhere, former two-division TKO Major League MMA champion
Marc-Andre
Barriault wrecked Julian
Marquez with
punches in the second round of their middleweight
pairing. Barriault (15-6, 4-5 UFC) drew the curtain
4:12 into Round 2, winning for the fourth time in six outings.
Marquez (9-4, 3-3 UFC) broke out of the gate in the first round,
where he unleashed his jab, punched well in combination and grew
comfortable enough in the standup exchanges to throw a standing
hammerfist at one point. However, he ran out of gas in the middle
stanza. Barriault answered with overwhelming pressure and punches
at close range. He eventually trapped a covered-up Marquez along
the fence and let fly with both hands until referee Mark Smith
had seen enough.
Barriault, 33, has delivered 10 of his 15 career victories by
knockout or technical knockout.
Further down the lineup, blue-chip Kill Cliff Fight Club prospect
Ian
Garry overcame some significant adversity to keep his perfect
professional record intact, as he disposed of Kenan Song
with
punches in the third round of their welterweight
confrontation. Garry (11-0, 4-0 UFC) brought it to a
close 4:22 into Round 3.
The 32-year-old Song (19-7, 4-3 UFC) decked the onetime Cage
Warriors Fighting Championship titlist with a counter left hook
late in the first period and swarmed for a potential stoppage.
Garry withstood the assault, then benefitted from the one-minute
respite between rounds. From there, he tortured Song with a
devastating jab and crippling low kicks, all while incorporating
crisp punching combinations to the body and head. Song ultimately
broke from all the damage. Garry cut loose with a vicious volley of
punches with less than a minute to go in the match and forced his
counterpart to somersault backward in a bid to shield himself. Song
then retreated into a defensive shell, where a brief burst of
punches frm the Irishman prompted referee Marc Goddard
to intervene.
Song has now lost back-to-back bouts.
Finally, Brazilian Thai export Tabatha
Ricci put away former Invicta Fighting Championships
titleholder Jessica
Penne with
an armbar in the second round of their women’s strawweight
encounter. Penne (14-7, 3-5 UFC) conceded defeat 2:14
into Round 2, suffering her first submission loss in nearly a
decade.
Ricci (8-1, 3-1 UFC) battered the Alliance MMA rep on the feet and
on the ground throughout a one-sided first round, then picked up
where she left off in the second. She executed an exquisite hip
toss, chipped away with leg kicks once she returned to her feet and
ultimately touched off a scramble that led her to a far-side armbar
for the finish.
The 28-year-old Ricci has won three fights in a row.
In other action, Cameron
Saaiman (8-0, 2-0 UFC) withstood a point deduction for multiple
low blows and escaped with a majority decision—29-26, 28-27,
28-28—over Leomana
Martinez (10-4, 2-2 UFC) in a three-round bantamweight scrap;
Farid
Basharat (10-0, 1-0 UFC) remained undefeated with a unanimous
decision over Da’Mon Blackshear (12-5-1, 0-1-1 UFC) in a
three-round bantamweight tilt, drawing 29-28 scores from all three
cageside judges; and two-time Professional Fighters League finalist
Loik
Radzhabov (17-4-1, 1-0 UFC) laid claim to a unanimous verdict
over Estebean Ribovics (11-1, 0-1 UFC) in a three-round lightweight
affair, sweeping the scorecards with 29-28 marks across the board.