MMA
Procházka knows his potential opponent, the cheeky Rakic is injured! This is what UFC Vegas 54 looked like
The UFC held another tournament on Saturday night. Unnumbered, but interesting nonetheless. Especially the main fight was key, which probably decided the potential next opponent of the Moravian fighter Jiri Prochazka. How did the UFC Vegas 54 tournament look like?
The UFC held another tournament on Saturday night. Unnumbered, but interesting nonetheless. Especially the main fight was key, which probably decided the potential next opponent of the Moravian fighter Jiri Prochazka. How did the UFC Vegas 54 tournament look like?
The UFC Vegas 54 gala offered 11 fights and it was definitely not a boring one. Right from the start, Andre Petroski wowed the fans with a quick finish of his opponent, who successfully finished off an anaconda choke. He didn’t even need a minute and a half to do it.
The next two fights ended on points and in both cases the judges agreed unanimously on the winners. Tatsuro Taira was no match for Carlos Candelario, Angela Hill took on Virna Jandorib for a change. One photo from their fight has the potential to go viral.
In the next bout, the fans got a second early finish. Michael Johnson needed to save his neck and repair his confidence as he held a streak of four straight defeats. And he accomplished that task, as he was able to defeat Alan Patrick in the second round.
The next two fights, one of which ended the prelims card and the other started the main card, again had to be decided by points judges. In the first case Viviane Araujo defeated Andrea Lee by unanimous decision, in the second case Allan Nascimento defeated Jake Hadley.
The main card saw its first early finish in the second bout. Manuel Torres, who earned a UFC contract in the fall on Dana White’s Contender Series, handled his debut in the organization with flying colors, defeating Frank Camacho by TKO.
Katlyn Chookagian and Amanda Ribas followed with an awesome women’s bout. Whichever way the win went, one could practically understand the decision. However, two of the three judges saw Chookagian win narrowly (29 to 28), and one judge saw the fight the other way around.
The other KO of the gala was by Davey Grant, who gave Louis Smolka no chance. The English fighter won after two defeats and hopes to stay on his winning streak for as long as possible.
The upcoming bout didn’t have to be decided by points judges either. Ryan Spann once again showed that he is a guillotine specialist and that is how he ended his fight with Ion Cutelaba in the first round. It was his ninth successful guillotine of his career.
Who can face Jiri Prochazka?
Jiri Prochazka will soon be facing a welterweight title fight against Brazilian veteran Glover Teixeira. The UFC Vegas 54 tournament was more or less decided on who will challenge the winner of this title fight.
Jan Blachowicz, who surprisingly just lost his title in his duel with Teixeira, accepted the challenge of brash provocateur Aleksandar Rakic, who constantly leaned on Prochazka. It was going to be a tough fight and that’s exactly what we witnessed. But unfortunately only until the third round.
The first round was a stand-up affair, with Blachowicz having a slight edge, while Rakic showed an extremely hard chin, especially at the end of the round. In the second round Rakic had the upper hand, taking Blachowicz down quickly where he was able to control the fight.
The third round started and ended in the standup, plus it was where the entire fight ended when Rakic got hurt by a bad takedown while retreating after one of Blachowicz’s shots. The Polish fighter understandably asked for a title shot after winning by TKO.
Source: UFC, Twitter