Caio Borralho broke down the door to the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s middleweight elite.
A potent jab, punishing leg kicks and powerful punching combinations carried the Fighting Nerds star to a unanimous decision over Jared Cannonier in the UFC on ESPN 62 headliner on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Borralho (17-1, 7-0 UFC) swept the scorecards with 49-45, 49-45 and 48-46 marks from the cageside judiciary, as he posted his 14th consecutive win.
Cannonier (17-8, 10-8 UFC) made him earn it and kept the fight competitive for four-plus rounds. The MMA Lab mainstay unleashed multi-punch volleys of his own and did visible damage to the Brazilian, opening a sickle-shaped cut underneath Borralho’s right eye in the fourth round. However, much of his good work was erased in the fifth. There, Borralho sent him crashing to the canvas with a crisp one-two, piled on with elbow-infused ground-and-pound and framed an arm-triangle choke in the waning seconds. A finish did not materialize, but the 31-year-old Dana White’s Contender Series graduate made a strong closing argument nonetheless.
Meanwhile, Brazilian Thai product Tabatha Ricci nailed down the most significant victory of her career, as she laid claim to a unanimous decision over former Invicta Fighting Championships titleholder Angela Hill in their three-round women’s strawweight co-main event. All three cageside judges scored it the same: 29-28 for Ricci (11-2, 6-2 UFC), who won for the sixth time in seven outings.
Related » UFC on ESPN 62 Prelims: Replacement Marshall Edges Buzuklja
Ricci pushed a frenetic pace from the outset. She pursued clinches behind multi-punch volleys, rarely affording Hill (17-14, 12-14 UFC) a chance to breath, much less operate in her comfort zone. Ricci executed a pair of takedowns in the second round and never took her foot off the gas despite mounting fatigue and considerable resistance from her opponent. Hill answered with combinations of her own, mixed in short-range elbows and deployed her counters to greater effect as time wore on. Even so, Ricci stuck to her game plan, refused to give ground and stayed busy until the final bell sounded.
In “The Ultimate Fighter 32” middleweight final, Team Alpha Male’s Ryan Loder put away Robert Valentin with a sustained burst of second-round elbows from a topside crucifix. Valentin (10-4, 0-1 UFC) bowed out 1:49 into Round 2, the loss closing the book on his three-fight winning streak.
The two men traded submission attempts—a scarf hold armlock from Loder, a rear-naked choke from Valentin—and advantageous positions during a hyperactive first round. A onetime NCAA All-American wrestler at the University of Northern Iowa, Loder (7-1, 1-0 UFC) made his move in the middle stanza. He scrambled into top position, advanced to the crucifix and cut off Valentin’s avenues of escape. From there, Loder drove repeated elbows into the Swiss middleweight’s exposed head until the job was done.
The 33-year-old Loder has won three fights in a row.
In “The Ultimate Fighter 32” featherweight final, Xtreme Couture’s Mairon Santos buried onetime Hex Fight Series champion Kaan Ofli with second-round punches. Ofli (11-3-1, 0-1 UFC) crashed and burned 1:30 into Round 2, his run of eight straight victories at an end.
Santos (14-1, 1-0 UFC) was superior in all phases. He held his own in the clinch, stymied Ofli’s bid for takedowns and tore into him with damaging leg kicks and clean combinations to the head. Santos backpedaled early in the middle stanza and sat down on a lightning bolt of a left hook that dropped his Australian opponent to his knees in a semi-conscious state. He then let fly with punches from both hands and left Ofli face down on the mat.
The setback was Ofli’s first since June 18, 2016. He had never before been finished.
Further down the card, undefeated Entram Gym prospect Michael Morales took care of Neil Magny with punches in the first round of their welterweight showcase. Magny (29-12, 22-11 UFC) succumbed to blows 4:39 into Round 1, as “The Ultimate Fighter 16” semifinalist suffered his first knockout loss in nearly six years.
Related » UFC Vegas 96 Round-by-Round Scoring
Morales (17-0, 5-0 UFC) tore into his veteran opponent’s lead leg with kicks, then stayed composed when the Elevation Fight Team mainstay closed the distance to clinch. After an extended struggle along the fence, the Ecuadorian created some space and connected with a spinning back elbow on the break that sent Magny crashing to the canvas. Morales plowed into top position, applied his ground-and-pound, progressed to full mount and eventually moved to the back. He then flattened out Magny and cut loose with unanswered punches until referee Dan Miragliotta had seen enough.
Finally, former Resurrection Fighting Alliance champion Gerald Meerschaert disposed of Xtreme Couture’s Edmen Shahbazyan with an arm-triangle choke in the second round of their middleweight appetizer. Meerschaert (37-17, 12-9 UFC) sealed the deal 4:12 into Round 2, winning for the sixth time in nine appearances.
Shahbazyan (13-5, 6-5 UFC) snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. He picked apart Meerschaert in the first round and for much of the second, as he fed the Kill Cliff Fight Club export body-head combinations, front kicks to the gut and occasional inside leg kicks. Shahbazyan had the 54-fight veteran in genuine peril in the middle stanza. A right hook to the solar plexus doubled over Meerschaert and a follow-up knee strike prompted his retreat to the canvas. Ferocious ground-and-pound ensued, as Shahbazyan hit the accelerator in a bid to procure the stoppage. It was not to be. Meerschaert withstood the onslaught, escaped to his feet and secured a takedown. Soon after, he framed the arm-triangle on the exhausted Shahbazyan, tightened his squeeze and elicited the tapout.
Meerschaert now holds the all-time record for finishes by a UFC middleweight with 12.
Continue Reading » UFC Vegas 96 Prelims: Cong Wang KOs Victoria Leonardo
