by The main card got off to a slow and methodical start as Adam Fugittt grinded out a split decision victory over Josh Quinlan before Asu Almabayev cruised to a unanimous 30-27 victory over Jose Johnson. Things began to spice up a bit during the third fight of the main card when Brady Hiestand took three rounds to finish Garrett Armfield by rear naked choke with a little over 3 minutes left in the fight. For Armfield, that is now his third finish in his last four fights.
Lucas Almeida dropped Timothy Cuamba twice in the first round with sharp left hook right cross combinations that landed perfectly. Almedia just stalked him down all round, having his way with ease. Almedia seemed to get off quicker in the second round as well as he routinely beat Cuamba to the exchange.
Things turned to the ground in the third, where Almedia once again had the slight advantage until a wild Cuamba flurry to end the third round. In the end, the judges had an easy time handing Almedia the clear 29-28 victory across the board. This moved his record to 14-3.
In the co main event of the evening it was Douglas Silva de Andrade taking on Miles Johns. The latter is a multiple time performance of the night winner and 8 years younger. The entire first round was spent on their feet with neither man gaining an advantage. The second round was more of the same as neither man was able to establish dominance. The third saw a bit more action as de Andrade landed several hard shots that appeared to rock Johns at times but could never quite seem to take him off his feet. In the end, the judges called it for Johns 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28.
Tatsuro Taira came into the main event tonight, 15-0 and wanted to bring Japan their first evet World UFC championship. This was his first ever UFC main event and the buzz was strong for him. His opponent, the 25-8 Alex Perez came in as the 5th ranked Flyweight in the UFC despite losing 3 of his last 4 fights with a modest 25-8 overall record and 8-4 in the UFC coming in.
With the exception of a Taira eye poke, there little to nothing to write about in the first round that saw minimal action, all on their feet. Another Taira eye poke occurred early into the second round as well. Ref Herb Dean seemed a bit irritated the second time around.
The bizarre ending came moments later when Taira scaled Perez for a rear naked choke. As Perez had his opponent trying to choke him from behind, he felt his leg get kicked out, snapping his knee and ending the fight by TKO. It was clean, quick and effective. Early word has it that Perez tore a ligament in the collapsing loss.
Congrats to all the winners tonight!
