Yadong
Song sees himself as a serious contender in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight division. Perhaps
he has a point.
The burgeoning Team Alpha Male star handled his business with
all-terrain expertise and laid claim to a unanimous decision over
Chris
Gutierrez in the
UFC Fight Night 233 headliner on Saturday at the UFC Apex in
Las Vegas. Song (21-7-1, 10-2-1 UFC) swept the scorecards with
50-44, 50-45 and 50-45 marks from the cageside judges, winning for
the fifth time in six assignments.
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Outside of a steady diet of leg kicks and a sensational front kick
to the face in the second round, Gutierrez (20-6-2, 8-3-1 UFC) was
not much of a factor. Song connected with the heavier punches,
controlled the center of the cage and kept the Factory X rep in a
constant state of retreat. He incorporated takedowns in the second,
third and fourth rounds, pairing them with positional control and
ground-and-pound. Gutierrez, in what can only be described as an
ill-conceived tactic, rolled for an attempted leg lock inside the
first 30 seconds of Round 5. It failed miserably, forcing him to
retreat to his back and spend the rest of the bout pinned
underneath his opponent.
Explosive Rountree Stops Smith
Syndicate MMA’s Khalil
Rountree cut down Anthony
Smith with punches in the third round of their light
heavyweight co-main event.
Smith (37-19, 12-9 UFC) met his end 56 seconds into Round
3, as the Factory X export suffered his third defeat
in four appearances. Rountree (13-5, 9-5 UFC) dialed up lightning-quick punches from
both hands, mixed in kicks when the situation called for it and
more than held his own in the clinch. He walked the aggressive
Smith into his jab over and over again, wobbled him with a counter
right hook in the second round and made sure to leave his imprint
on the match. Rountree cut loose with a right uppercut early in
Round 3 and backed it up with a sweeping left hook. The concussive
force of the blows put Smith on skates and sent him tumbling
backward into a defenseless position, prompting the stoppage.
The 33-year-old Rountree has won five fights in a row, four of them
finishes.
Resurgent Haqparast Zaps Mullarkey
Tristar Gym rep Nasrat
Haqparast put away Jamie
Mullarkey with punches in the first round of their lightweight
attraction.
Mullarkey (17-7, 5-5 UFC) checked out 1:44 into Round 1, losing for
the second time in three outings.
The 28-year-old Haqparast (16-5, 8-4 UFC) sat down the Aussie with
a laser beam of a straight left, then gave chase. A hellacious
volley of rapid-fire uppercuts followed, as Mullarkey stood in a
dazed-and-confused state before collapsing to his knees. Referee
Keith
Peterson gave him every chance to recover before electing to
wave it off.
Haqparast has rattled off three straight victories.
Elliott Arm-Triangle Sleeps Mudaerji
“The Ultimate Fighter” Season 24 winner Tim Elliott
stepped in as a short-notice replacement for Allan
Nascimento and choked Su Mudaerji
unconscious with an arm-triangle in the first round of their
bantamweight feature.
Mudaerji (16-6, 3-3 UFC) lost his grip on reality 4:02 into Round
1.
Elliott (20-13-1, 9-11 UFC) followed a close-range elbow strike
into a takedown and settled in side control. From there, the
onetime Titan Fighting Championship titleholder dropped elbows,
lulled Mudaerji into a false sense of security and moved on the
arm-triangle as soon as the opportunity presented itself. Elliott’s
squeeze did the rest.
All six of Mudaerji’s losses have resulted in submission.
Determined Muniz Stifles Park
Repeated takedowns, positional advances and stifling control
carried former Bitetti Combat champion Andre Muniz
to a split decision over Jun Yong
Park in a three-round middleweight appetizer. All three
cageside judges scored it 29-28, two of them siding with Muniz, who
entered the cage on the heels of back-to-back defeats to Brendan
Allen and Paul
Craig.
Muniz (24-6, 6-2 UFC) executed takedowns and progressed to the back
in all three-rounds, applied some mild ground-and-pound and hunted
chokes. Park (17-6, 7-3 UFC) stayed composed under considerable
duress. He managed to sweep into top position in the first and
third rounds, at which point he unleashed his hands and elbows.
However, those bursts of offense were not enough for Park to
overcome his deficiencies elsewhere.
The setback snapped Park’s four-fight winning streak.