by UFC Vegas 70 went through a significant change during the broadcast. Our originally scheduled light heavyweight headliner between Nikita Krylov and Ryan Spann was canceled when the former fell ill with food poisoning. So the UFC promoted the middleweight co-headliner, which ended in a major upset.
In the opening part of the card Nurullo Aliev got his first UFC victory against Rafael Alves, which he won by majority decision. Despite a point deduction for sticking Alves’ finger in the first round (referee Mark Smith examined the finger and said he saw a ‘mark’), the newcomer managed to step up in the second and third rounds of his fight. Joe Solecki applied a back-exposed choke to Carl Deaton III. The Contender League alum wasted no time in taking down and making submission attempts, the latter putting ‘Anishinaabe’ to sleep. Ode’ Osbourne won a hard fought victory against Charles Johnson. The ‘Jamaican Sensation’ was nearly taken out by a nasty nut shot from ‘InnerG,’ but still did enough on the scorecards of two of three judges for the split decision. Jordan Leavitt dropped Victor Martinez to his knees for a first round TKO. After folding Martinez in the clinch, the ‘Monkey King’ fired several knees that sent the ‘Brick’ to the canvas. A few more shots from Leavitt followed, and that was it! Fun fact (brought to you by our very own Dane Fox): Leavitt now has more (T)KOs than submissions in the UFC, despite being known as a submission specialist. How about that? Jasmine Jasudavicius dominated Gabriella Fernandes en route to a unanimous decision. Jasudavicius took ‘Gabi’ down repeatedly, working her way into cross positions and elbowing her opponent. Trevor Peek added Erick Gonzalez to his resume with the most violent KO in the first round. The undefeated fighter threw everything at the ‘Ghost Pepper,’ who was injured several times. Peek ended the fight with a right hand and two left hands at the buzzer. He was naughty.
The main part of the card started with Mike Malott scoring his fifth consecutive knockout in the first round. ‘Proper’ got caught by Yohan Lainesse and took the ‘White Lion’ to the ground, where he switched to an arm triangle. Lainesse taped. Tatiana Suarez returned to the competition after an absence of almost four years (!) and Montana De La Rosa vacated. The former Ultimate Fighter winner saw the opportunity for a guillotine choke and jumped on it, forcing De La Rosa to tap. Although she competed at flyweight for this appearance, Suarez said she would drop down to strawweight after that. Augusto Sakai snapped a four fight losing streak after knocking out Don’Tale Mayes over the course of three rounds.
Brendan Allen finished the card with a stoppage submission of André Muniz. In a fight between two of the best grapplers in the middleweight division, ‘All In’ was able to take down ‘Sergipano’ and sink into the back-exposed choke. Now on a four-fight winning streak, Allen had a host of ready names on his call-out list, such as Sean Strickland, Chris Curtis, Jack Hermansson and Dricus Du Plessis.
Performance of the Night: Joe Solecki, Jordan Leavitt, Trevor Peek, Mike Malott, Tatiana Suarez and Brendan Allen
Joe Solecki def. Carl Deaton by submission (exposed back tack) at 4:55 of Round 2
Jordan Leavitt def. Victor Martinez by TKO (knee) at 2:27 of Round 1
Trevor Peek def. Erick Gonzalez by KO (punches) at 4:59 of Round 1
Mike Malott def. Yohan Lainesse by submission (arm-triangle choke) at 4:15 of Round 1
Tatiana Suarez def. Montana De La Rosa by submission (guillotine choke) at 2:51 of Round 2
Brendan Allen def. André Muniz by submission (exposed back tack) at 4:25 of Round 3
Fight of the Night: No FOTN
Nurullo Aliev def. Rafael Alves by majority decision (29-27, 29-27, 28-28)
Ode Osbourne def. Charles Johnson by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Jasmine Jasudavicius def. Gabriella Fernandes by unanimous decision (30-26 x3)
Augusto Sakai def. Don’Tale Mayes by unanimous decision (30-27 x3)
