Ludovit
Klein showed once again that he has one of the most accurate
nicknames in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship.
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In the top prelim of UFC on ESPN 57 on Saturday in Louisville,
Kentucky, “Mr. Highlight” (22-4-1) knocked down Thiago
Moises (18-8) multiple times en route to a dominant unanimous
decision win. Their fight was characterized by each fighter’s
willingness to engage in his opponent’s preferred territory.
Moises, one of the lightweight division’s most dangerous submission
artists, traded blows with Klein, especially in the first round,
when he attempted head kicks and narrowly missed with a looping
bomb to the head that left Klein visibly relieved. Klein, for his
part, showed little fear of Moises’ jiu-jitsu, taking the black
belt down several times including a resounding slam in Round 3.
Their gameness made for exciting viewing, but as a strategic choice
it favored Klein, who hurt Moises repeatedly and appeared to be
rolling towards a finish at the end of Rounds 1 and 2. Moises
survived and remained competitive throughout, but the unanimous
30-27 scores in favor of Klein were an accurate representation of
the action. The win extended Klein’s unbeaten streak to six
straight fights and should have him on a collision course with a
Top 10 foe in his next matchup, while Moises will need to bounce
back from this loss if he wishes to return to those rankings.
On an undercard that had opened with six straight decisions,
including three split verdicts, Carlos
Prates broke the ice in style, wrecking Charlie
Radtke with a brutal knee to the body in the first round.
Prates (19-6) appeared several steps ahead of Radtke (9-4) from the
start, baiting “Chuck Buffalo” with feints and picking him apart
with precise punches and kicks. Radtke was game, coming forward and
throwing big haymakers, several of which came close to connecting,
but “Carlao” was simply taking his opponent’s measure. Prates
landed an intercepting knee on Radtke as he advanced, then a few
seconds later hit him with a much harder, cleaner one, folding him
instantly at 4:47 of Round 1. No follow-up strikes were necessary,
as referee Blake Grice
recognized that Radtke was done. The highlight-reel finish left
Prates at 2-0 since joining the UFC out of
Dana White’s Contender Series last year, while Radtke fell to
2-1 in the Octagon.
Brad
Katona (14-3) entered the cage in Louisville as the biggest
betting favorite on the card and fought like it, mauling Jesse
Butler (12-6) on the ground for three rounds while taking next
to no damage. “Superman” established the superiority of his
wrestling early, grounding Butler and going to work with his heavy
top game. The first round saw Katona smother and control Butler,
but the relentless assault took its toll, and in Round 2, Katona
went to work with a barrage of elbows from top position, splitting
Butler’s forehead open and leaving him in pure survival mode.
Butler toughed it out to the end of the round, but the final frame
offered no reprieve, and Katona once again took Butler down
quickly, then went to work beating him up from guard. The judges
rewarded Katona with a unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26),
getting him back in the win column after his January loss to
Garrett
Armfield; Butler is now 0-2 in the UFC with lopsided losses to
Jim
Miller last summer and now Katona.
Montana
De La Rosa (13-9-1) exacted a measure of revenge, outworking
Andrea
Lee (13-10) in their flyweight clash, a rematch of their 2019
outing which Lee won by decision. Like their first meeting,
Saturday’s fight was a closely contested affair, with both women
experiencing success in the striking as well as grappling. De La
Rosa distinguished herself with active offense from her back,
including several triangle and armbar attempts that forced Lee onto
the defensive, as well as much sharper boxing than she showed five
years ago. De La Rosa showed some exotic ground work, including an
awkward-looking choke attempt from the back in Round 2 and a Suloev
stretch setup in Round 3. Neither reached the point of real peril
for “KGB,” but taken in conjunction with her accurate striking,
they were enough to net her two rounds on two judges’ scorecards,
good enough for a split decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-29). The win
snapped a three-fight skid for the 29-year-old De la Rosa, while
Lee’s run of misery continued with her fifth straight loss.
Daniel
Marcos continued his march up the bantamweight ranks, turning
in a dominant three rounds of work against John
Castaneda. The boxing of Marcos (16-0, 1 NC) proved too fast,
too sharp and too powerful for Castaneda (21-7), who struggled to
find the Peruvian, let alone land the takedowns that represented
his best path to victory. Marcos’ jab quickly reddened the face of
Castaneda, who had his best success in the early going with leg
kicks. Those kicks dried up, however, as Marcos continued to score
with crisp punch combinations. Castaneda managed to take Marcos
down in Round 2, but was unable to take advantage of the position
to do any damage. Round 3 saw “Soncora” turn on the jets, knocking
Castaneda down and continuing to put on a boxing clinic to the
final horn. Marcos prevailed by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27,
30-27), getting him back in the win column after his bizarre,
foul-plagued no contest against Qileng Aori
earlier this year. Castaneda’s loss snapped the two-fight win
streak he built last year, leaving him to regroup after this
one-sided outing.
Denise
Gomes put in a hard hat-worthy performance, handing an
overweight Eduarda
Moura her first professional loss in their 117-pound
catchweight affair. Conventional wisdom seemed to imply that
knockout artist Gomes (9-3) would form one-half of a classic
striker versus grappler matchup against decorated judoka Moura
(10-1), but quickly dispelled that notion by snaring Moura in a
standing guillotine in the opening seconds. After a few tense
moments, Moura managed to extricate herself from the submission
attempt, but it was a harbinger of what was to come. Gomes landed a
steady stream of power punches on the feet, and exhibited no fear
of her countrywoman’s vaunted ground game, working calmly from her
back and even initiating takedowns of her own when it suited her.
The second round was especially strong for the 24-year-old, who
turned up the pressure as Moura appeared to tire and ended the
frame by pummeling her foe’s head as she clung to a single-leg
takedown against the fence. Gomes appeared to have won no fewer
than two rounds clearly—probably all three—but thanks to a
mystifying scorecard by local judge Chris Kinman, had to settle for
a split decision (30-27, 30-27, 28-29).
Taylor
Lapilus continued to validate the UFC’s decision to re-sign
him, outdueling Cody
Stamann in their bantamweight preliminary bout. Lapilus (20-4)
used footwork, superior reach and ample volume to frustrate Stamann
(21-7-1), pitching a near shutout against the American’s normally
reliable takedown game. Going into the final round, Lapilus
appeared to be on his way to a well-deserved but relatively
suspense-free win, but Stamann managed to bring some drama to the
proceedings. “The Spartan” finally secured a solid takedown early
in the final frame, slamming the Frenchman to the canvas and
landing in side control, but Lapilus managed to return to his feet
without suffering any real damage. From there, Lapilus went back to
work touching Stamann up at range, and the rest was academic.
Lapilus prevailed by unanimous 30-27 scores, running his record to
2-0 since rejoining the UFC last year; Stamann has now lost two in
a row and five of his last seven in the Octagon.
In the strawweight opener, Puja Tomar
made history twice, entering the cage as the first woman from India
to fight in the UFC, then leaving it as the first Indian fighter,
male or female, to record an official victory. That does not imply
that Tomar (9-4) had an easy night of work, as Rayanne
dos Santos (14-8) appeared to outwork and outland the “Cyclone”
in at least two of three rounds. Dos Santos, a former
Invicta Fighting Championships atomweight champ, enjoyed a
visible size advantage for one of the very few times in her UFC
run, and spent large stretches of the fight backing up the shorter
Tomar with punches and kicks. However, dos Santos’ failure to cut
off the cage and Tomar’s busy, sanda-influenced kicking game left
each round individually competitive. For the cageside judges, that
equated to difficulty in reaching a consensus, and the result was a
decision featuring rarely seen opposing 30-27 scorecards. The third
score, 29-28 for Tomar, made it a split verdict for the 30-year-old
debutante.