Virna
Jandiroba is becoming impossible to ignore in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship strawweight title picture.
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In the main event of UFC on ESPN 60, Jandiroba (21-3, 7-3 UFC)
soundly outgrappled Amanda
Lemos (14-4-1, 8-4 UFC) for just under two rounds before
cinching up the fight-ending armbar. The former
Invicta Fighting Championships strawweight titleholder wasted
little time in bringing the fight into her wheelhouse, shooting a
double-leg takedown early in Round 1. Aided by Lemos jumping on a
guillotine attempt, “Carcara” extracted her head from the choke,
then settled into Lemos’s half guard, where “Amandinha” bucked and
swept to top position. Jandiroba countered with a kneebar attempt,
which Lemos escaped, but the resulting scramble ended with the
jiu-jitsu ace in back control, where she rode out the rest of the
frame. Round 2 got off to a better start for Lemos, who kept her
countrywoman at arm’s length and touched her with clean punches for
the first several minutes. However, a clinch was not long in
coming, and from there, Jandiroba hauled Lemos to the canvas, where
she showed the depth of her game. Lemos grappled capably, but
Jandiroba was a step ahead each time. Jandiroba took Lemos’ back in
the center of the Octagon and worked for a rear-naked choke,
and when Lemos fought off the choke, she peeled off for a lovely
armbar that had her foe tapping in seconds.
The submission came officially at 4:48 of Round 2, Jandiroba’s
fourth straight since dropping a decision to Amanda
Ribas almost three years ago, and left her as a viable choice
to be Weili
Zhang’s next title challenger. Lemos’s loss left her a clear
Top 10 talent but without a clear path back to a shot at the
belt.
Garcia Flattens Choi
In the featherweight co-main event of “UFC Vegas 93,” Steve
Garcia (16-5) kept the train rolling, flattening Seung Woo
Choi (11-7) with a massive left hand and follow-up punches.
Garcia, who entered the bout on the momentum of three straight
knockout wins, lived up to his “Mean Machine” nickname once again.
After a few awkward opening exchanges during which Garcia struggled
to get past Choi’s low kicks, both fighters threw caution to the
wind and began exchanging toe-to-toe near the center of the
Octagon. Amid the Looney Tunes-esque cloud of dust,
Garcia caught the Korean with a flush left hand. Choi dropped in
place and Garcia left nothing to chance, pouncing with a stream of
punches that forced referee Herb Dean to intervene at just 1
minute, 36 seconds of Round 1. The win put Garcia in
sole possession of the longest active streak of KO/TKO finishes in
the UFC and left him at 5-2 in the promotion; Choi’s loss, his
fourth in his last five fights, dropped his Octagon tally to
4-6.
Holobaugh Tops Kruschewsky in Lightweight Slugfest
Promoted to the feature bout after Jun Yong
Park withdrew from his bout with Brad
Tavares on Friday, Kurt
Holobaugh and Kaynan
Kruschewsky made the most of the moment, throwing everything
short of the kitchen sink at one another in a lightweight bout that
was heavy on leather and momentum changes, short on defense and
strategy. Both men had their moments in Round 1, landing cleanly to
each other’s chin and wading forward to throw some more. Holobaugh
appeared to take over in the second frame as he punished
Kruschewsky to the body, hurting him badly. With the Brazilian
swaying on his feet and under a minute to go in the round,
Holobaugh made the puzzling decision to take Kruschewsky down,
shooting straight into an arm-in guillotine attempt. Holobaugh
extricated himself from the choke easily, but his best chance to
finish the fight had passed. Luckily for Holobaugh, Round 3 offered
more of the same, and he appeared to pull further ahead as the
fight went on. Holobaugh picked up the win via unanimous decision
(29-28, 29-28, 29-28), elevating his Octagon tally to 2-5 across
two stints with the promotion; Kruschewsky fell to 0-2 since
joining the promotion out of
Dana White’s Contender Series last fall.
Silva Rallies, Dusts Durden
In a frenetic flyweight scrap, Bruno Silva
snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with a huge uppercut and
brutal follow-up punches. Round 1 was a furiously paced slugfest,
punctuated only by a timeout after an inadvertent eye poke from
Durden. Nonetheless, Durden won the first round and appeared to be
pulling away in the second, landing more and heavier shots, right
up until Silva caught him with a gorgeous left uppercut.
The punch sent Durden staggering into the fence, where Silva
swarmed, closing things out with a stream of unblocked punches with
Durden’s head trapped against the base of the cage.
Referee Chris Tognoni moved in to rescue the senseless and bloody
American at 3:38 of the second round. The come-from-behind win was
Silva’s fourth straight finish in the UFC and left him 4-2 with one
no contest in the promotion and eyeing a likely Top 15 opponent his
next time out. Durden fell to 5-4-1 in the UFC in defeat.
Choi Picks Up Eye-Busting TKO of Algeo
With his back against the wall, Doo Ho Choi
(15-4-1) delivered bigtime, smashing Bill Algeo
(16-9) with a second-round punch that left him unable to continue.
Round 1 was a fast-paced affair that moved seamlessly through all
phases of MMA, with Choi attempting multiple guillotine chokes,
while Algeo sought to pin him at the base of the fence, suck his
hips out from under him and take dominant positions. Algeo had the
better moments on the feet, including a flush spinning elbow that
stumbled Choi in place, but neither man appeared close to a finish.
The second frame offered more of the same, though at a diminished
pace, but Choi began to land with increasing frequency.
The momentum was already increasingly with Choi when he landed a
clean left hand that dropped Algeo to one knee, not dazed but in
obvious pain, and waving one hand. Referee Herb Dean,
seeing that Algeo was no longer defending himself, stepped in for
the stoppage at 3:38 of Round 2. The TKO was Choi’s first win of
any kind in eight years, snapping a four-fight winless streak and
quite possibly saving his roster spot for him, and elevating his
UFC record to 4-3-1. Algeo’s second straight loss left him at 5-5
in the promotion.
Amil Obliterates Lee
In the main card opener, Hyder Amil
(10-0) kept his undefeated record in the most emphatic manner
imaginable, hitting Jeong Yeong
Lee (11-2) with what felt like a thousand punches in barely a
minute of cage time. The fight was frantic from the moment referee
Mark Smith motioned the featherweights into action, with several
exchanges of punch flurries in the opening moments. Both fighters
landed solidly in the early going, but Amil recovered almost
instantly and overwhelmed the South Korean with power, volume and
surprising accuracy.
True to his “Hurricane” nickname, Amil closed things out with a
torrent of unanswered punches to the head of Lee, who slumped
against the fence in a daze as Smith pleaded with him to defend
himself. There was no response forthcoming from Lee,
and Smith waved the fight off at 65 seconds of Round 1. The
sensational finish brought Amil, an Octagon latecomer at age 34, to
2-0 with two knockouts; Lee’s first UFC loss left him at 2-1 in the
promotion.