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Williams removed all doubt about whether or not he was major
league-ready. The
Nor-Cal Fighting Alliance rep wiped out Gregory
Rodrigues with punches in the first round of their middleweight
showcase during
Week 7 of
Dana White’s Contender Series on Tuesday at the UFC Apex in Las
Vegas. Rodrigues (7-3) melted 2:19 into Round 1, closing the book
on his six-fight winning streak.
Williams (8-3) made the most of his third DWCS invite. He walked
through a sweeping right hand and a glancing head kick, backed the
Brazilian to the fence and staggered him with a counter left hook.
Seeing Rodrigues’ knees buckle, he then flurried with punches against the cage and
kept throwing until the job was done.
The 29-year-old Williams, a Type 1 diabetic, was one of three
competitors awarded contracts by the
Ultimate Fighting Championship. Collin
Anglin and Danyelle
Wolf were the others.
Anglin Bests Favored Naimov
Factory
X prospect Collin Anglin navigated a minefield to capture a
unanimous decision over the previously unbeaten Muhammadjon
Naimov in an action-packed three-round featherweight
confrontation. Anglin (8-1) was awarded 29-28, 29-27 and 29-27
scores from the judges.
Naimov (5-1) raced out to a quick lead in the first round, where
the Elevation Fight Team rep unleashed devastating kicks to the
lower leg, connected with a number of powerful right hands and
blasted his American adversary with a knee to the face on the
break. Anglin was undeterred. He turned up the heat in the second
round, as he battered Naimov with knees from the clinch, delivered
a takedown, chipped away with ground-and-pound and achieved full
mount. Those efforts led to a dominant Round 3, where Anglin had
the Tajikistan native teetering on the brink with standing elbows,
sneaky left hooks and uppercuts. He secured another takedown,
threatened with a rear-naked choke and survived being reversed in
the closing moments, as Naimov settled in side control and uncorked
elbows but failed to do enough damage to alter the judges’
scorecards.
Anglin, 27, has won seven fights in a row.
Frustrated Lombardo Subdues Kuppe
American Top Team’s Michael
Lombardo moved to 1-1 on the Contender Series with a unanimous
decision over Korey Kuppe
in a largely uneventful three-round welterweight affair. All three
cageside judges struck 29-28 scorecards for Lombardo (11-2).
Kuppe (8-4) mustered little in the way of meaningful offense,
outside of a guillotine choke that nearly resulted in a surprise
finish in the waning seconds of Round 1. Otherwise, he played
defense. Lombardo executed takedowns in all three rounds, utilized
suffocating top control and applied occasional ground-and-pound
against his lanky 6-foot-5 adversary.
Lombardo will ride into his next assignment on the strength of
back-to-back victories.
Debuting Wolf Decisions Tennant
Stiff jabs, thudding right hands and a late submission attempt
carried Danyelle Wolf to a unanimous decision over
Invicta Fighting Championships Phoenix Series 3 tournament
winner Taneisha
Tennant in a three-round women’s featherweight scrap. A
decorated amateur boxer and onetime Olympic hopeful, Wolf (1-0)
swept the scorecards with matching 29-28 marks from the judges.
After being outstruck for much of the first round, Tennant (3-1)
adjusted her approach and turned the tide in the middle stanza.
There, she upped her aggression, piled up points with leg kicks and
had Wolf reeling with a burst of punches to the head and a front
kick to the body. Tennant seemed poised to pick up where she left
off in the third round, but an eye poke stymied her progress. She
pursued Wolf in the clinch after the restart, wandered into a
guillotine and spent the better part of two minutes trying to
extricate herself the choke. It was enough to cost Tennant the
decision.
Driscoll Outpoints Undersized Paiva
American Kickboxing Academy export Kyle
Driscoll won for the seventh time in as many appearances, as he
laid claim to a unanimous decision over Dinis Paiva
in a three-round featherweight pairing. All three cageside judges
scored it the same: 29-28 for Driscoll (12-3).
Neither man was particularly effective, but output was a real issue
for Paiva (13-8). Driscoll secured a takedown in the first round
and connected with a jaw-jacking right cross in the second,
incorporating two- and three-punch combinations along with
occasional kicks to the arms and body. Paiva shifted momentum his
way in Round 3, where he floored his counterpart with a straight
left, powered into top position, applied his ground-and-pound and
freed himself from an attempted armbar. Even so, the finish he
needed did not come to fruition.
The loss snapped Paiva’s two-fight winning streak. 
