Outside Source
In the simplest terms, Joe Pyfer has arrived as a middleweight contender.
In the main event of UFC Seattle on Saturday night, the rising middleweight contender faced by far the greatest test of his career in two-time former champion Israel Adesanya. Pyfer wasted little time in trying to secure a takedown, but “The Last Stylebender” calmly fought it off against the fence. Adesanya took the matador’s role, barely slipping some huge power shots from the Philly native and coming back with slick counters, including a couple of nasty leg kicks and an intercepting knee that clearly stung. Pyfer landed a beautiful takedown with under 30 seconds left, but the round expired before he could truly capitalize.
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Adesanya continued to work on Pyfer’s lead left leg in Round 2, drawing greater and greater reactions, but absorbed several big right hands. Unbelievably, Adesanya acquiesced in a brawl in the middle of the round, getting in several heavy shots of his own but getting hurt by Pyfer, who corralled him against the fence and threw a stream of hooks as the former champ covered up. Pyfer took down a hurt-looking Adesanya and moved instantly to mount, then took Adesanya’s back, where he worked patiently for a rear-naked choke. Adesanya escaped the choke and squirmed out of back control, only for Pyfer to follow him to mount, then again to back mount. With Adesanya flattened out in the center of the cage and offering no resistance as Pyfer slugged his head with both hands, referee Herb Dean was forced to intervene at 4 minutes, 18 seconds of the second round.
With his fourth straight win, Pyfer moved to 16-3 overall, 14-5 in the UFC, and is a serious player in the title picture. Adesanya, whose first career losing streak now stands at four, fell to 24-6 overall, 13-6 in the UFC.
Grasso Posterizes Barber
In the co-main event, Alexa Grasso wrecked Maycee Barber in such a shocking fashion that we were forced to ask the unlikely question: Can a fighter win “Knockout of the Year” and “Submission of the Year” for the same fight? The flyweight contenders’ bout, a rematch of their first meeting five years ago, began as a tense, tentative contest on the feet. Both women took their time getting their bearings in the relatively uncommon southpaw vs. southpaw matchup. Barber seemed eager to close the distance, marching forward behind her jab as Grasso gave ground and flicked out her own jab as well as some low kicks. A tactical and deliberate opening round turned to chaos in an instant, however, when Grasso hit Barber with a grazing right hand in the pocket, followed by a flush left that melted Barber in her tracks. In a flashback to her shocking title win over Valentina Shevchenko, Grasso was on Barber’s back in an instant, cinching up a rear-naked choke. Barber made no move to defend and referee Mike Beltran pulled Grasso off of her at 2:42 of Round 1.
A tense and frankly disturbing scene followed, as the cameras stayed focused on Barber for over a full minute while she lay unconscious, eyes wide open, under the care of the cageside physician. Grasso, for her part, knelt respectfully and looked on as her stricken foe was attended to. After review, the result was announced as a knockout rather than a submission, on the understanding that she had been out cold by the time Grasso applied the choke. With the win, one of the most shockingly violent of this year or any other in the UFC, Grasso moved to 17-5-1 overall, 9-5-1 in the UFC and, significantly, 6-2-1 at flyweight; Barber fell to 15-3 overall, 10-3 in the UFC.
Chiesa Secures Hero’s Farewell
Michael Chiesa spent far longer savoring the moment than he did making it, as the retiring Washington state native throttled Niko Price in just 63 seconds. Price stepped in on a week’s notice for the injured Carlston Harris, but the moment felt inevitable almost without regard for who stood in the blue corner. The fight itself played out as a classic “Maverick” performance: Chiesa navigated a few tentative striking exchanges against the similarly lanky, awkward Price, then secured a takedown, moved to his opponent’s back in a flash and cinched up his trademark rear-naked choke. Price tried to fight it off, slamming both of them to the ground in an effort to dislodge Chiesa, but to no avail. Chiesa adjusted the choke, squeezed and waited a few seconds for the inevitable tap. The win sent the “TUF 15” lightweight winner into the sunset on a four-fight win streak and with a record of 20-7 overall, 15-7 in the UFC. Price, who looked as if he might be contemplating retirement himself, fell to 16-11 with two no contests overall, 8-11 with two no contests in the UFC, and has lost four straight.
Douglas Wrecks Erosa
Lerryan Douglas (14-5; 1-0 UFC) could not have scripted his UFC debut much better, as the former Legacy Fighting Alliance featherweight champ annihilated Julian Erosa (31-13; 9-9 UFC) in the first round. Erosa has built a surprising run in the UFC over the last few years with back-and-forth barnburner fights, but Saturday was all one-way traffic in Douglas’ favor. The “Gunslinger” was simply too fast, too accurate and too powerful for Erosa, chewing up the native Washingtonian’s lead leg within the first minute, then repeatedly beating him to the punch. Erosa was as tough and game as ever, and never stopped trying to turn the fight around with his own big punches and kicks, but Douglas slipped or parried the strikes coming his way, then returned fire. By the midpoint of Round 1 the end seemed to be a foregone conclusion. Erosa went down from a crushing jab, then was dropped again by another. “Juicy J” scrambled to his knees, looking perhaps to drag the fight to the ground, but Douglas shucked him off and flattened him with a final, pinpoint left hand. Referee Blake Grice had seen enough, and he pulled the Brazilian off his stricken foe at 3:33 of Round 1.
Belgaroui Dominates Abdul-Malik for Third-Round TKO
Yousri Belgaroui (10-3) made it look easy, outstriking Mansur Abdul-Malik (9-1-1) from pillar to post in their middleweight main card attraction. Conventional wisdom held that Belgaroui would need to contend with the American’s wrestling and concussive punching power in order to get his own game going, but he was in the driver’s seat from the start. He used good lateral movement, his long jab and especially his calf kicks to hurt and frustrate Abdul-Malik, who struggled to cut off the cage, especially once he began visibly limping on his battered lead leg. The already dominant performance was turned to a rout in the middle of Round 2, when Belgaroui popped back up after being briefly taken down. The Tunisian-Dutch kickboxer teed off on a tired-looking Abdul-Malik, dropping him in the closing seconds. There was a moment of confusion as to whether referee Mike Beltran had waved the fight off as a TKO or simply separated them at the horn, but they came out for Round 3, at which point Belgaroui picked up where he left off. To his credit, Abdul-Malik came out swinging big haymakers, trying to salvage a miracle win, but Belgaroui was simply too fresh, too dialed in and too good on the feet to fall victim to a Hail Mary punch. Belgaroui slipped all of the desperation punches, quickly wall-walked his way back up from a takedown, and resumed throwing hammers. The finishing sequence was set up by a straight to the body and an uppercut to the jaw that left Abdul-Malik reeling, exhausted and wobbling backward on his feet. Belgaroui gave chase and drilled his foe with a final, brutal knee to the head. Abdul-Malik went down in a heap and Beltran was there for the stoppage, staving off further punishment and giving the Glover Teixeira protégé the TKO win at 3:39 of Round 3. The win left Belgaroui at 2-0 in the UFC with two wins over more highly touted prospects; Abdul Malik’s first career loss left him at 3-1-1 in the promotion.
McKinney Blitzes Nelson
In the lightweight main card opener, walking statistical anomaly and Washington state native Terrance McKinney (18-8; 8-5 UFC) delivered one of his nastiest lightning-strike finishes yet, burying Kyle Nelson (17-7-1; 5-6-1 UFC) under an avalanche of kicks and punches in just 24 seconds. “T.Wrecks,” as is his custom, ran at Nelson as though launched from a cannon, throwing a flurry of punches that missed or glanced off of the Canadian’s guard. Nelson managed to fire back one strike before McKinney nailed him with a head kick. From the moment, 11 seconds in, that Nelson ate that kick until referee Herb Dean moved in for the rescue, McKinney landed at least 20 unanswered blows. The win put McKinney back in the won column after his submission loss after his December loss to Chris Duncan, and considering he has yet to win a “Performance of the Night” despite being the most reliably violent man in the UFC this decade, there might not be a happier person in the world that the promotion now hands out automatic finish bonuses.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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