JOANNA Jedrzejczyk delivered a thrilling comeback performance to retain her UFC women’s strawweight title in an instant classic against Claudia Gadelha at The Ultimate Fighter Finale.
Gadelha came flying out of the blocks and dominated the champion in the opening round, taking the Pole to the mat and looking to work submissions.
It was more of the same in the second, too, as the Brazilian held sway over the previously dominant champion.
But things started to turn at the end of the second round as Jedrzejczyk started to find her rhythm and began to land cleanly on the challenger.
A dominant third round followed for the champion, as Jedrzejczyk came storming back into the fight using her blistering hand speed and thumping front kicks, before repeating the feat on an increasingly exhausted Gadelha in the fourth.
And while Gadelha rallied and made the final frame far more competitive than the previous two, it was Jedrzejczyk who outstruck the challenger down the stretch to score a memorable win in one of the best women’s fights ever witnessed in the UFC Octagon.
The MGM Grand crowd were far from entertained by the light-heavyweight final of The Ultimate Fighter, as Andrew Sanchez wrestled his way to a landslide decision against Khalil Rountree.
Despite being the lighter man, Sanchez was able to dominate Rountree with his wrestling. But while he could get his opponent to the mat, he did precious little once he was down there.
And the crowd rained boos down on the Octagon as the fight drew to a disappointing conclusion, with Sanchez winning with scores of 30-25, 30-25, 30-26.
Thankfully, the women’s strawweight final of The Ultimate Fighter saw Tatiana Suarez deliver a relentless performance of grit and determination to submit Amanda Cooper in the opening round.
Suarez looked to take Cooper to the mat at the earliest opportunity, and after a series of scrambles on the mat, managed to lock up a D’Arce choke that had Cooper tapping furiously to end the contest.
After the fight, Suarez revealed to the crowd that she’d survived cancer and wasn’t going to let Cooper get the better of her in the Octagon.
She also paid tribute to the US police force in the wake of the tragic shootings in Dallas, as the crowd cheered their support for the UFC’s newest strawweight prospect.
In one of the most entertaining scraps of the night Will Brooks edged out Brit Ross Pearson after a competitive three rounds on the main card.
Brooks shaded the opening round before dominating the second.
And despite Pearson’s storming comeback in Round 3, it was the former Bellator lightweight champion whose hand was raised after the scorecards were tallied.
All three judges scored it 29-28 in favour of the UFC debutant, who immediately called out newly-crowned UFC champion Eddie Alvarez, telling him to “keep that belt warm for me”.
The relentless rise of ‘The Korean Superboy’ Doo Ho Choi continued with a fantastic TKO finish of Brazilian veteran Thiago Tavares.
Tavares utilised his wrestling early on in the contest, taking Choi to the mat and laying on him, looking to sap the South Korean prospect’s strength.
But when Choi managed to wriggle back to his feet the fight turned spectacularly in his favour.
After throwing out a couple of range-finders, Choi threw a beautiful one-two combo that sent the Brazilian crashing to the mat. Another big shot to the grounded Tavares was more than enough for referee Herb Dean, who dived in to call a stop to the fight as the Las Vegas crowd roared its approval.
Joaquim Silva kicked off the main card with a blistering performance to knock out Andrew Holbrook in their lightweight bout.
Silva caught an early Holbrook kick, decked him with a right hand then knocked him cold with a salvo of hammerfists to close the show after just 34 seconds.
In the battle between two up-and-coming lightweight prospects ‘The Mo-Town Phenom’ Kevin Lee ran out victorious, finishing young Aussie Jack Matthews via ground-and-pound TKO in the opening round.
Matthews was the betting favourite going into the bout, but Lee utilised his wrestling pedigree to take the Australian prospect to the mat before flattening him out and finishing him with ground strikes.
After the bout, Lee called on the UFC to make a match between him and New Yorker ‘Raging’ Al Iaquinta at the UFC’s upcoming UFC 205 event at Madison Square Garden.
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