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Alistair
Overeem’s clinch work and ground-and-pound took their toll on
Augusto
Sakai over the course of their UFC Fight Night 176 headliner
last weekend.
In a recent interview with
Ag Fight, the Brazilian heavyweight revealed that he suffered
multiple rib injuries during the fight as a result of Overeem’s
onslaught. Those injuries ultimately made it difficult for Sakai to
remain upright, and he succumbed to the Dutchman via fifth-round
TKO at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
“In the second round, I was hit with a knee that dislocated two of
my ribs,” Sakai said. “When he took me down, he hit me with an
elbow that broke two more. So I was without four ribs, so to speak.
That got in the way a lot. I could not defend takedowns.”
Sakai did well on the feet through the opening 10 minutes, but
momentum shifted after Overeem landed his first takedown of the
fight in Round 3. “The Demolition Man” nearly ended the contest
with ground-and-pound in the fourth frame before one final salvo
halted the bout 26 seconds into Round 5.
Sakai admitted he was hindered from the accumulated damage. “I
could not show my jiu-jitsu. I could not defend myself very well.
Kudos to him,” Sakai said. “I’m sure he used his experience in his
favor, but I was expecting that.
“What made things difficult for me, and I’m not trying to come up
with an excuse here, was the pain in my ribs. Even then, I tried to
endure it as much as I could.”
Sakai, who began his Octagon tenure with triumphs over Chase
Sherman, Andrei
Arlovski, Marcin
Tybura and Blagoy
Ivanov, suffered his first MMA defeat in more than three
years.
