Lucas
Alexander could not have been more impressive in his second
assignment with the
Ultimate Fighting Championship.
The long-limbed
Fusion X-Cel featherweight prospect leaned on debilitating
kicks, airtight takedown defense and surgical counters ahead of a
unanimous verdict over onetime Legacy Fighting Championship
titleholder Steven
Peterson in the featured
UFC on ESPN 43 prelim on Saturday at the AT&T Center in San
Antonio. All three cageside judges scored it the same: 30-27 for
Alexander (8-3, 1-1 UFC).
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Peterson (19-11, 3-5 UFC) was outmatched stylistically and
athletically. Alexander blew up his base with repeated kicks to the
lower lead leg, utilized exquisite footwork and connected with
punches while moving forward and backward. Peterson’s situation
continued to deteriorate as time wore on, as his lack of mobility
turned him into a stationary target and left him vulnerable to body
kicks and multi-punch volleys to the head.
Afterward, the 32-year-old Peterson announced his retirement from
mixed martial arts.
Further down the card, former Fury Fighting Championship
titleholder C.J. Vergara
staged a borderline-miraculous rally to stop Daniel da
Silva with
unanswered punches in the second round of their chaotic flyweight
clash. Vergara (11-4-1, 2-2 UFC) brought it to a close
4:04 into Round 2.
Da Silva (11-5, 0-4 UFC) nearly finished it on multiple occasions
in the first round. There, he had Vergara reeling with a glancing
wheel kick, gave chase with a hellacious flurry of punches,
executed a takedown and flirted with a rear-naked choke.
Ultimately, da Silva ran out of gas and ideas. Vergara countered an
ill-advised calf slicer in the middle stanza and floated into an
arm-triangle choke, then pinned the depleted Brazilian to the
canvas with an unending stream of elbows and punches. Da Silva
failed to answer referee Jason Herzog’s repeated calls to
intelligently defend himself.
Vergara, 31, has won seven of his past nine bouts.
In other action, Trevin
Giles (16-4, 7-4 UFC) eked out a split verdict—29-28, 28-29,
29-28—over Preston
Parsons (10-4, 1-2 UFC) in a three-round welterweight affair;
and Victor
Altamirano (12-2, 2-1 UFC) took a unanimous decision from
Vinicius
Salvador (14-5, 0-1 UFC) in a three-round flyweight pairing,
drawing 29-28 marks on all three scorecards.