Outside Source
Edson Barboza’s experience fighting some of the UFC’s toughest names paid dividends on Saturday night.
Barboza faced Sodiq Yusuff in the main event of UFC Vegas 81 in a featherweight clash, and it certainly delivered with Barboza overcoming early adversity. Barboza nearly got finished in the first round, but he won the next four rounds on all three judges’ scorecards to earn a unanimous decision win via scores of 49-46 and 48-46 twice.
Both fighters came out swinging, and Yusuff caught Barboza with a big right hand seconds in. Barboza tried to counter, but Yusuff continued to land clean, hard shots, wobbling Barboza multiple times in the first minute.
Yusuff kept marking up Barboza with strikes throughout the first half of the second round. Barboza, however, found a little bit more success — mostly when he went to the body of Yusuff — in the final 90 seconds of the round. Then he landed his biggest shot, a right hand to the jaw of Yusuff to swing some momentum.
Barboza continued to look great into the third round, ripping to the body of Yusuff. He then landed an incredible spinning wheel kick that badly hurt Yusuff, but the horn sounded before he could get the finish.
The now 29-fight octagon veteran wisely used the effective body work, mixing in takedowns throug the championship rounds. Yusuff returned to the octagon after over a year out of action and had his two-fight winning streak snapped in the process.
This article first appeared at MMA Fighting – All Posts
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