Knockdown Daily 10/24/21: Marvin Vettori Beats Paulo Costa Up At Light Heavyweight
Marvin Vettori's UFC main event win over Paulo Costa leads the MMA headlines for Sunday
Welcome to the Sunday edition of the Knockdown Daily. There’s a lot to talk about today, including UFC and Bellator from yesterday.
News
Marvin Vettori Successful In Temporary Move To Light Heavyweight, Defeats Paulo Costa After Five Rounds
Marvin Vettori returned to the win column in Saturday’s main event, earning a unanimous decision win over Paulo Costa after a five-round striking battle. The bout headlined a UFC “Fight Night” card from the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
The close fight showed the toughness of both fighters, as they both threw and consumed large amounts of strikes.
Vettori had a good start to the fight, out-landing Costa in fast-paced stand-up exchanges through the first and second rounds.
Costa suffered a setback in the second round, as referee Jason Herzog deducted a point from him due to an accidental eye poke. Herzog justified the point deduction by mentioning that Costa was warned during the fight about how he was running the risk of poking Vettori in the eye due to how he was holding his arms out.
Costa was the more active striker late, throwing at a much better volume than Vettori in the championship rounds. He was landing at a high frequency with punches and kicks to the body in the final round, scoring clean and clearly doing damage to a tired Vettori.
The main event bout became notorious earlier in this week for a last-minute change of weight classes. The fight, which was first scheduled for the middleweight limit of 186 pounds, was moved up by 20 pounds after Costa admitted he was on pace to be incredibly overweight at the weigh-ins.
Both fighters were returning for the first time since losing a title challenge to UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya.
Costa was competing for the first time in over a year. His title fight, which was a second-round stoppage loss, came in September 2020.
Vettori’s title fight was more recently, going five rounds for a unanimous decision loss against the champ in June.
Gregory Rodrigues vs. Park Jun-yong Given ‘Fight of the Night’ Award
UFC middleweights Gregory Rodrigues and Park Jun-yong walked away with an extra $50,000 for their matchup on Saturday, as it was given a “Fight of the Night” award.
Rodrigues earned a second-round stoppage win over Park in the fight, finishing him with a series of punches on the feet. The finishing sequence was a hectic one that saw the former LFA Middleweight Champion go from being nearly stopped to securing the win for himself within a minute’s time.
UFC also handed out two “Performance of the Night” awards, giving $50,000 to Marvin Vettori and Alex Caceres for their respective wins.
Caceres made a comeback in his victory over Choi Seung-woo, securing a second-round rear naked choke submission. He was in trouble a round before then, getting dropped by punches from Choi.
A full report about UFC on ESPN+ 54 can be read here.
Here are the quick results:
Preliminary Card (1:00PM EDT / 10:00AM PDT) (ESPN+ / UFC Fight Pass Canada)
Bout 1: Jonathan Martinez def. Zviad Lazishvili via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 2: Randa Markos def. Livinha Souza via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 3: Jeff Molina def. Daniel da Silva via TKO, Strikes (RD 2, 0:46)
Bout 4: Jai Herbert def. Khama Worthy via TKO, Strikes (RD 1, 2:47)
Bout 5: Jamie Pickett def. Laureano Staropoli via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 6: Tabatha Ricci def. Maria Oliveira via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 7: Mason Jones def. David Onama via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 8: Gregory Rodrigues def. Park Jun-yong via TKO, Strikes (RD 2, 3:13)
Main Card (4:00PM EDT / 1:00PM PDT) (ESPN+ / UFC Fight Pass Canada)
Bout 9: Nick Negumereanu def. Ike Villanueva via TKO, Strikes (RD 1, 1:18)
Bout 10: Francisco Trinaldo def. Dwight Grant via Decision, Split
Bout 11: Alex Caceres def. Choi Seung-woo via Submission, Rear Naked Choke (RD 2, 3:31)
Bout 12: Jessica-Rose Clark def. Joselyne Edwards via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 13: Grant Dawson vs. Ricky Glenn via Decision, Majority Draw
Bout 14: Marvin Vettori def. Paulo Costa via Decision, Unanimous
Fedor Emelianenko Secures Walk-Off KO In Return, Defeats Timothy Johnson At Bellator 269
Fedor Emelainenko scored a walk-off stoppage win in his return fight on Saturday, stopping Timothy Johnson in the first round with a series of hooks. Emelanenko’s win came in front of his home country at the VTB Arena in Moscow, Russia.
The bout headlined Bellator 269 on Saturday night.
Emelianenko dropped Johnson with a strong three-punch combination. Entering with a right cross, Emelianenko then scored with a left and right hook that floored Johnson and caused the referee to end the fight.
Emelianenko had the quicker striking in the short bout, getting the best of every exchange.
Emelianenko, a veteran of Pride FC and Strikeforce, was competing for the first time since 2019. His previous fight saw him defeat veteran Rampage Jackson, stopping him within a round in Japan.
The 45-year-old Russian veteran, who is regarded as one of the greatest heavyweights of all time, was fighting in his home country of Russia for the first time in five years.
Johnson was competing just months after losing a fight for the interim Bellator Heavyweight Championship, dropping a unanimous decision to Valentin Moldavsky in June.
A full report on Bellator 269 can be read here.
Here are the quick results:
Preliminary Card (12:30PM EDT / 7:30PM MSK) (Youtube)
Bout 1: Aiden Lee def. Aleksandr Osetrov via Submission, Rear Naked Choke (RD 1, 3:41)
Bout 2: Alexey Shurkevich def. Grachik Bozinyan via TKO, Strikes (RD 1, 2:25)
Bout 3: Nikita Mikhailov def. Brian Moore via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 4: Irina Alekseeva def. Stephanie Page via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 5: Katarzyna Sadura def. Darina Mazdyuk via TKO, Strikes (RD 2, 3:17)
Bout 6: Kirill Sidelnikov def. Rab Truesdale via TKO, Strikes (RD 1, 2:01)
Main Card (3:00PM EDT / 10:00PM MST) (Showtime)
Bout 7: Anatoly Tokov def. Sharaf Davlatmurodov via Decision, Split
Bout 8: Usman Nurmagomedov def. Patrik Pietila via Submission, Rear Naked Choke (RD 1, 4:06)
Bout 9: Said Sowma def. Vitaly Minakov via TKO, Injury (RD 3, 3:08)
Bout 10: Fedor Emelianenko def. Timothy Johnson (RD 1, 1:40)
EDITOR’S NOTE: A report on RIZIN 31 isn’t included in today’s issue, as the event was ongoing at the time of publishing. News about the event will be included in the Monday edition of the newsletter.
Live coverage of the event can be read here.
UFC Confirms Flyweight Title Fight, Location For UFC 270 PPV
UFC revealed details about their first pay-per-view event of 2022 during Saturday’s “Fight Night” broadcast. The promotion unveiled that UFC 270 will take place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, USA on January 22nd.
The event will be the promotion’s first show in the state of California since August 2019.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced UFC to hold events in just a few locations since 2020, although the promotion has been branching out and returning to locations through their numbered PPV series.
Along with a previously reported title unification fight between Francis Ngannou and Ciryl Gane at heavyweight, UFC confirmed a trilogy fight at flyweight between Brandon Moreno and Deiveison Figueiredo.
It was first rumored earlier this month that the trilogy fight, which was first booked for UFC 269 in December, would be bumped to UFC 270. The announcement on Saturday confirmed that move.
Three Fights Join UFC 270
Three fights that weren’t previously reported by Knockdown News were also revealed during Saturday’s announcement.
Undefeated welterweight Michael Morales will make his UFC debut when going up against Trevin Giles. Morales has a flawless 12-fight pro record that includes a win on “Dana White’s Contender Series” from last month. Giles had a three-fight winning streak snapped in July, getting stopped by Dricus Du Plessis.
Saimon Oliveira will also get his first UFC bout at the event, facing Tony Gravely at bantamweight. Oliveira earned a UFC contract last month with a win on TV show “Dana White’s Contender Series.”
Gravely will be fighting to bounce back from a loss he took to Nate Maness in September.
Flyweights Poliana Botelho and Kim Ji-yeon will attempt to get back to their winning ways at the PPV. Both fighters have lost their last two bouts via decision.
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