UFC 204: Marc Diakiese and Leon Edwards shine in Manchester prelims

IT was a big night for former BAMMA champions Marc Diakiese and Leon Edwards, as the British duo claimed the biggest wins of their professional careers on the preliminary card at UFC 204 in Manchester.

Former BAMMA Lonsdale lightweight champ Diakiese’s over-exuberance saw him miss a flying attack straight from the start, as Sajewski evaded him and took him to the mat.

But the 23-year-old showed composure and maturity while under duress on the mat, stifling the Polish submission specialist’s grappling.

And when the fight returned to the feet, Diakiese took over, landing powerful strikes as the round came to a close.

The finish came in the second, as Diakiese, more relaxed in his new surroundings, started to pick his shots better.

He backed Sajewski up against the cage, then unloaded a superb salvo of strikes to force the referee to step in, stop the contest and give Diakiese the perfect start to his young UFC career.

Former BAMMA welterweight champ Edwards also turned in a notable performance as he registered the most impressive win of his career by submitting highly-rated striker Albert Tumenov.

Edwards arrived in the UFC last year with a reputation as a striker, but in his recent outings the Birmingham welterweight has shown he’s more than happy to take the fight to the ground where necessary.

And against decorated striker Tumenov that’s exactly what Edwards did, eventually taking ‘Einstein’ to the mat and locking up a rear-naked choke to secure a huge win.

Sadly it wasn’t all good news for the Brits on the preliminary card, as Danny ‘Hot Chocolate’ Roberts’ dreams of a win on home soil were dashed in brutal fashion by Mike ‘Platinum’ Perry after one of the fights of the year on the UFC Fight Pass prelims.

Roberts’ slick striking skills appeared to give him the edge in terms of sheer volume of strikes, but Perry’s heavy-handed punches certainly appeared to do the more damage when they landed.

And the American finished the first and second rounds on top of the Brit, raining down punishing shots, only for Roberts to come storming back at the start of the following frame.

But the final round saw Perry’s power finally make the decisive difference as he landed a huge knee to Roberts’ chin, then followed up with a massive right hand that sent the Brit crashing to the mat.

It was also a disappointing night for the two British bantamweights on the card, as both Davey Grant and Brad ‘One Punch’ Pickett fell to submission defeats.

Grant appeared to be cruising to a decision win when he was caught by a nasty-looking armbar submission by Damien Stasiak that left him with a suspected broken arm.

And fan favourite Pickett never had the chance to get any offence off at all, as Brazilian Iuri Alcantara locked up a quickfire triangle choke to force the Brit to tap out in the very first round.