Tatsuro
Taira entered the cage on Saturday looking to complete the
transition from prospect to contender, and he succeeded, though not
in the way anyone would have wished for.
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In the flyweight headliner of
UFC on ESPN 58 at the UFC Apex, Taira faced resurgent former
title challenger Alex Perez.
Perez immediately took the fight to the young phenom, coming at him
with big punches and some hard low kicks, shoving him to the fence
with underhooks, and generally putting on a frantic pace. Taira was
up to the test, holding his own in the clinch and sticking Perez
with long, straight punches in space. Perez scored a takedown late
in the round, scooping the Okinawan up and depositing him on his
back in the center of the cage, but Taira popped right back to his
feet. Taira was cautioned for eye pokes twice in the first round
and a half of the fight, but his composure was otherwise exemplary
for a 24-year-old in his first UFC main event. Nonetheless, Perez
seemed to be succeeding in making the fight a chaotic affair, and
getting slightly the better of that chaos, when Taira turned a
blown takedown attempt into a beautiful standing back take.
After a long sequence on the feet, Taira hauled the veteran to the
floor, only for Perez to scream out in pain, having suffered an
apparent knee injury during the takedown. Referee Herb
Dean immediately waved the fight off, an anticlimactic end to a
promising bout. The result went into the books as a TKO via leg
injury at 2:59 of Round 2, running Taira’s record to 16-0 overall,
6-0 in the UFC. Perez, who had been riding the positive momentum of
his knockout of Matheus
Nicolau in April, fell to 25-9 overall, 7-5 in the UFC.
Miles
Johns (15-2, 1 NC) picked up a key win, outpointing Douglas
Silva de Andrade (29-6, 1 NC) in a tense, sometimes frustrating
bantamweight co-main event that smoked, smoldered but never quite
burst into a full conflagration. The tentative first round yielded
few decisive moments, but Johns’ punching power advantage was
obvious, and implied he might take over the fight—or end it—if he
could land more than a glancing blow. The bantamweights remained
content to exchange single punches and kicks, albeit with murderous
intent, in Round 2, but Johns appeared to land more and heavier
blows, including a left hand late in the round that staggered the
Brazilian badly. Johns continued his gradual takeover of the fight
in the final frame, where he hurt Silva de Andrade again in the
early moments. “D’Silva” recovered quickly and mounted some offense
of his own, landing several hard shots on Johns as both men ramped
up the urgency just a bit. Silva de Andrade made things interesting
late, landing a lovely wheel kick and knocking Johns’ mouthpiece
out with a solid pair of punches, but the American recovered—aided
by referee Mark Smith’s intervention to return his gumshield—and
they closed out the fight by swinging away in the center of the
cage. The judges scored the fight for Johns by 30-27, 30-27 and
29-28 tallies, bringing his UFC record to 6-2 with one no contest
since graduating from
Dana White’s Contender Series Season 3; Silva de Andrade fell
to 7-6 in the Octagon.
Lucas
Almeida (15-3) righted the ship, snapping a two-fight losing
streak with a heavy-handed performance against Timothy
Cuamba (8-3) in their featherweight attraction. Cuamba
immediately established his speed advantage on the feet, navigating
the reach of the taller, heavier Brazilian with blisteringly quick
one-twos and low kicks. Almeida was unruffled, though, and blasted
the Hawaiian with a heavy left-right combo near the halfway point
of the round, the right hand coming through unblocked to sit Cuamba
down in place. Cuamba returned to his feet and appeared to recover,
but Almeida dropped him with another clean right hand a minute
later. Cuamba survived again and, after a moment’s recovery, waded
into range and landed a solid combination of his own, loosening
Almeida’s mouthguard, then tagging him with a solid left to the
body in the closing seconds. Cuamba went right back to work in
Round 2, darting into range to land punches and going back to work
on Almeida’s body. He appeared to be gaining momentum when Almeida
rocked him with yet another short right. Cuamba stumbled and dived
for a single-leg takedown attempt, buying himself time to recover,
but when they resumed the striking battle, Cuamba still had no
answer for the Brazilian’s heavy, accurate right. The round closed
with Almeida matching Cuamba down, backing him into the fence, in
clear control of the fight. Cuamba once again came out spirited for
the final frame, landing a sharp body kick, then shooting for a
takedown in the opening minute. Almeida managed to fight off the
takedown and went on the offensive, backing the shorter man up with
feints and hard, straight punches. Almeida remained in the driver’s
seat on the feet, and while Cuamba landed a clean takedown with a
minute to go, and threw a torrent of strikes from top position, he
could not find the finish, or even do enough damage to leave the
outcome in doubt. The cageside judges turned in unanimous 29-28
scores in favor of Almeida, who moved to 2-2 in the UFC with the
win. Cuamba, who dropped a split decision to Bolaji Oki
in his short-notice debut in February, fell to 0-2.
Returning to the Octagon for the first time in over a year,
Brady
Hiestand made up for lost time, throttling Garrett
Armfield after two-plus rounds of back-and-forth bantamweight
madness. Armfield struck first, snaring Hiestand in a tight armbar
in the opening seconds of Round 1. The fight looked to be on its
way to a sub-minute finish as Armfield went belly-down and
Hiestand’s limb contorted at an alarming angle, but Hiestand
remained calm, squirmed out of the hold and transitioned instantly
to a guillotine choke. It was Armfield’s turn to show his cool and
he did so, surviving and escaping, but the wild grappling display
was far from over. Hiestand secured another takedown late in the
round and applied a rear-naked choke. With his forearm completely
under Armfield’s chin, the fight looked to be over, but Armfield
fought off the choke and made it to the horn. Rather than test his
luck on the floor again in Round 2, Armfield showcased his
striking, rocking Hiestand badly with punches twice in the opening
seconds. Armfield hustled his dazed foe to the ground, where he
shucked off a loose triangle attempt and pounded him with punches
from top position while passing his guard. Hiestand recovered,
exploded to his feet and hauled Armfield to the canvas once again,
applying a body triangle and working for a rear-naked choke.
Armfield defended capably again and returned to his feet, where
they slugged it out for the final minute. Round 3 began similarly,
with Armfield’s sharper, heavier punches giving him the advantage,
but once again, Hiestand showed his ability to take an opponent’s
back in a flash, wrapping Armfield up and dragging him to the
floor.
The rear-naked choke attempt was not long in coming and this time,
Armfield was forced to ask out of the fight at 1 minute, 28 seconds
of the final frame. The finish brought Hiestand’s
record to 8-2 overall, 3-1 in the UFC, with three straight wins
since coming up short against Ricky
Turcios in “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 29 finale. Armfield
fell to 10-4 overall, 2-2 in the UFC.
Assu Almabaev continued his inexorable rise up the 125-round ranks,
thoroughly outgrappling Jose
Johnson for three rounds in their main card attraction.
Almabaev (20-2) spent the first few minutes of the fight adjusting
to the unique matchup problems presented by the six-foot-tall
Johnson, who dropped from 135 pounds for this fight and immediately
became the tallest flyweight in UFC history. However, once Almabaev
found his way past the jab and front kicks of “No Way,” his
advantages in wrestling and grappling became obvious. Almabaev took
down Johnson with ease in all three rounds, pelted him with
sporadic but effective ground-and-pound, took his back, and
threatened with various chokes and cranks, leaving no doubt as to
who the superior fighter was. Johnson managed to avoid a complete
rout by mounting some effective grappling offense of his own,
taking the Kazakh’s back in Round 2 and briefly securing full mount
in Round 3. However, Almabaev escaped without damage or serious
peril each time, and the unanimous decision verdict (30-27 on all
cards) was a mere formality. With the win, the 30-year-old went 3-0
in the UFC and extended his overall win streak to 16 straight since
his only two career losses—one of them to current Octagon co-worker
Tagir
Ulanbekov—over seven years ago. Johnson’s unsuccessful
flyweight debut left him 1-2 in the promotion.
In the welterweight main card opener, Adam Fugitt
(10-4) and Josh
Quinlan (6-3, 1 NC) engaged in three rounds of razor-close
kickboxing. Each man tested the other’s defenses and resolve in
similar ways, using plentiful low kicks to set up head kick
attempts and feinting at range before darting into the pocket with
punch combinations. Fugitt mixed in frequent strategic stance
changes and a spinning back elbow late, while Quinlan attempted
several Superman punches. Both had their moments of offensive
success, but neither man hurt the other badly, and the result was
three entertaining yet difficult-to-score rounds. The judges saw it
that way, rendering an unsurprising split decision in favor of
Fugitt (29-28, 29-28, 28-29). The win evened up Fugitt’s UFC ledger
at 2-2, while Quinlan fell to 1-3 since joining the UFC on the
heels of his overturned Contender Series win.
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