Virna Jandiroba is becoming impossible to ignore in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship strawweight title picture.
In the main event of UFC on ESPN 60, Jandiroba (21-3, 7-3 UFC) soundly outgrappled
Amanda Lemos (14-4-1, 8-4 UFC) for just under two rounds before cinching up the fight-ending armbar. The former
Invicta Fighting Championships strawweight titleholder wasted little time in bringing the fight into her wheelhouse, shooting a double-leg takedown early in Round 1. Aided by Lemos jumping on a guillotine attempt, “Carcara” extracted her head from the choke, then settled into Lemos’s half guard, where “Amandinha” bucked and swept to top position. Jandiroba countered with a kneebar attempt, which Lemos escaped, but the resulting scramble ended with the jiu-jitsu ace in back control, where she rode out the rest of the frame. Round 2 got off to a better start for Lemos, who kept her countrywoman at arm’s length and touched her with clean punches for the first several minutes. However, a clinch was not long in coming, and from there, Jandiroba hauled Lemos to the canvas, where she showed the depth of her game. Lemos grappled capably, but Jandiroba was a step ahead each time. Jandiroba took Lemos’ back in the center of the Octagon and worked for a rear-naked choke,
and when Lemos fought off the choke, she peeled off for a lovely armbar that had her foe tapping in seconds. The submission came officially at 4:48 of Round 2, Jandiroba’s fourth straight since dropping a decision to
Amanda Ribas almost three years ago, and left her as a viable choice to be
Weili Zhang ’s next title challenger. Lemos’s loss left her a clear Top 10 talent but without a clear path back to a shot at the belt.
Garcia Flattens Choi
In the featherweight co-main event of “UFC Vegas 93,”
Steve Garcia (16-5) kept the train rolling, flattening
Seung Woo Choi (11-7) with a massive left hand and follow-up punches. Garcia, who entered the bout on the momentum of three straight knockout wins, lived up to his “Mean Machine” nickname once again. After a few awkward opening exchanges during which Garcia struggled to get past Choi’s low kicks, both fighters threw caution to the wind and began exchanging toe-to-toe near the center of the Octagon. Amid the Looney Tunes-esque cloud of dust,
Garcia caught the Korean with a flush left hand. Choi dropped in place and Garcia left nothing to chance, pouncing with a stream of punches that forced referee Herb Dean to intervene at just 1 minute, 36 seconds of Round 1. The win put Garcia in sole possession of the longest active streak of KO/TKO finishes in the UFC and left him at 5-2 in the promotion; Choi’s loss, his fourth in his last five fights, dropped his Octagon tally to 4-6.
Holobaugh Tops Kruschewsky in Lightweight Slugfest
Promoted to the feature bout after
Jun Yong Park withdrew from his bout with
Brad Tavares on Friday,
Kurt Holobaugh and
Kaynan Kruschewsky made the most of the moment, throwing everything short of the kitchen sink at one another in a lightweight bout that was heavy on leather and momentum changes, short on defense and strategy. Both men had their moments in Round 1, landing cleanly to each other’s chin and wading forward to throw some more. Holobaugh appeared to take over in the second frame as he punished Kruschewsky to the body, hurting him badly. With the Brazilian swaying on his feet and under a minute to go in the round, Holobaugh made the puzzling decision to take Kruschewsky down, shooting straight into an arm-in guillotine attempt. Holobaugh extricated himself from the choke easily, but his best chance to finish the fight had passed. Luckily for Holobaugh, Round 3 offered more of the same, and he appeared to pull further ahead as the fight went on. Holobaugh picked up the win via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28), elevating his Octagon tally to 2-5 across two stints with the promotion; Kruschewsky fell to 0-2 since joining the promotion out of
Dana White's Contender Series last fall.
Silva Rallies, Dusts Durden
In a frenetic flyweight scrap,
Bruno Silva snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with a huge uppercut and brutal follow-up punches. Round 1 was a furiously paced slugfest, punctuated only by a timeout after an inadvertent eye poke from Durden. Nonetheless, Durden won the first round and appeared to be pulling away in the second, landing more and heavier shots, right up until Silva caught him with a gorgeous left uppercut.
The punch sent Durden staggering into the fence, where Silva swarmed, closing things out with a stream of unblocked punches with Durden’s head trapped against the base of the cage. Referee Chris Tognoni moved in to rescue the senseless and bloody American at 3:38 of the second round. The come-from-behind win was Silva’s fourth straight finish in the UFC and left him 4-2 with one no contest in the promotion and eyeing a likely Top 15 opponent his next time out. Durden fell to 5-4-1 in the UFC in defeat.
Choi Picks Up Eye-Busting TKO of Algeo
With his back against the wall,
Doo Ho Choi (15-4-1) delivered bigtime, smashing
Bill Algeo (16-9) with a second-round punch that left him unable to continue. Round 1 was a fast-paced affair that moved seamlessly through all phases of MMA, with Choi attempting multiple guillotine chokes, while Algeo sought to pin him at the base of the fence, suck his hips out from under him and take dominant positions. Algeo had the better moments on the feet, including a flush spinning elbow that stumbled Choi in place, but neither man appeared close to a finish. The second frame offered more of the same, though at a diminished pace, but Choi began to land with increasing frequency.
The momentum was already increasingly with Choi when he landed a clean left hand that dropped Algeo to one knee, not dazed but in obvious pain, and waving one hand. Referee Herb Dean, seeing that Algeo was no longer defending himself, stepped in for the stoppage at 3:38 of Round 2. The TKO was Choi’s first win of any kind in eight years, snapping a four-fight winless streak and quite possibly saving his roster spot for him, and elevating his UFC record to 4-3-1. Algeo’s second straight loss left him at 5-5 in the promotion.
Amil Obliterates Lee
In the main card opener,
Hyder Amil (10-0) kept his undefeated record in the most emphatic manner imaginable, hitting
Jeong Yeong Lee (11-2) with what felt like a thousand punches in barely a minute of cage time. The fight was frantic from the moment referee Mark Smith motioned the featherweights into action, with several exchanges of punch flurries in the opening moments. Both fighters landed solidly in the early going, but Amil recovered almost instantly and overwhelmed the South Korean with power, volume and surprising accuracy.
True to his “Hurricane” nickname, Amil closed things out with a torrent of unanswered punches to the head of Lee, who slumped against the fence in a daze as Smith pleaded with him to defend himself. There was no response forthcoming from Lee, and Smith waved the fight off at 65 seconds of Round 1. The sensational finish brought Amil, an Octagon latecomer at age 34, to 2-0 with two knockouts; Lee’s first UFC loss left him at 2-1 in the promotion.
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