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\nGetty Images\/UFC<\/b><\/p>\n
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It was a matchup of former champions who could ill afford another Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Former middleweight titleholder Du Plessis (24-3; 10-1 UFC) and After all the artillery exchanged in the first two rounds, the As befitted two proud former champions who are no strangers to Getty Images\/UFC It was a matchup of former champions who could ill afford another loss in the division, and Dricus Du Plessis and Kamaru Usman fought like it. Advertisement Former middleweight titleholder Du Plessis (24-3; 10-1 UFC) and welterweight counterpart Usman (21-5; 16-4 UFC) met in the main event of UFC Oklahoma City on Saturday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39375,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nloss in the division, and Dricus Du
\nPlessis<\/a> and Kamaru
\nUsman<\/a> fought like it.<\/p>\n
\nwelterweight counterpart Usman (21-5; 16-4 UFC) met in the main
\nevent of
\nUFC Oklahoma City<\/a> on Saturday at Paycom Center, and while du
\nPlessis showed his resourcefulness and champion\u2019s grit, Usman made
\nhim work for every bit of it. The early action was characterized by
\ntense, awkward pocket exchanges as the ex-champs tried to figure
\none another out, but the balance of things appeared to be going
\ntowards du Plessis, who caught Usman with several powerful flush
\nright hands to the head in the first few minutes. Usman weathered
\nthem well, however, and never stopped throwing back, leading to a
\ncompetitive but clear first frame for the South African. After a
\nfirst round that was nearly all boxing, \u201cStillknocks\u201d came out
\nkicking in Round 2, pelting \u201cThe Nigerian Nightmare\u201d to the legs
\nand head, but it was an intercepting knee that wobbled him badly.
\nUsman recovered quickly, only to duck into another knee strike
\nmoments later. Again, he regrouped with a speed that belied his age
\nand long career, but he appeared to be not entirely back when du
\nPlessis crushed him with a left hook. The punch impacted Usman\u2019s
\neye and he backed off, pawing at the eye. Referee Kerry Hatley
\npaused the action, but when replay showed the damage to have been
\ndone by a closed fist, he sent them back to work. Usman made it to
\nthe horn, but the momentum looked to be very much with the younger
\nman.<\/p>\n
\nmiddle frame was a more measured affair, with both contenders
\ncautious, fatigued or both, but du Plessis again appeared to have
\nthe advantage, as Usman came up short on his biggest swings. Usman
\nchanged things up with a nice takedown in the final minute, but du
\nPlessis sprang back to his feet immediately. Perhaps sensing that
\nhe was too far behind to win on points, Usman was aggressive to
\nopen Round 4, alternating long, lunging punches and kicks with
\nsneaky snatch single-leg attempts, looking for a burst of offense
\nthat might turn the fight on its head. When the fight did turn,
\nhowever, it was in the other direction. Du Plessis launched a left
\nhigh kick that landed on Usman\u2019s raised guard but put him on wobbly
\nlegs nonetheless. Usman recovered and tried to play off the impact
\nof the strike, but du Plessis kept up the pressure, staggering the
\nformer welterweight champ with punches several more times. Usman
\nnever wilted, and managed to hurt \u201cDDP\u201d with a right hand late in
\nthe round, but at best that might have convinced the judges not to
\nconsider a 10-8 score for a round in which he had been rocked a
\nhalf-dozen times.<\/p>\n
\nfive-round fights, Du Plessis and Usman did not let up a bit in the
\nfinal frame. Du Plessis landed yet another head kick that hurt
\nUsman despite being blocked, and Usman never stopped coming forward
\nand throwing his hardest punches, hoping against hope to salvage
\nvictory from defeat. There was a moment, as he hurt du Plessis and
\nflurried until the horn, but ultimately he succeeded only in making
\nthe final round the closest one. The judges saw it that way,
\nscoring the fight for du Plessis by 50-45, 49-46 and 49-46 scores.
\nThe win put du Plessis back in the win column after his title loss
\nto Khamzat
\nChimaev<\/a> last year, and positioned him well for a rematch with
\ncurrent champ Sean
\nStrickland<\/a>. Usman was valiant in defeat, but now stands at 0-2
\nat 185 pounds.
\n
In the co-main event, Christian
\nLeroy Duncan<\/a> (15-2; 8-2 UFC) took on the biggest name and
\nbiggest test of his career and passed, taking a three-round
\ndecision over longtime middleweight contender Jared
\nCannonier<\/a> (18-10; 11-10 UFC). Facing a fellow kickboxer a dozen
\nyears old than himself and visibly smaller, \u201cCLD\u201d enjoyed the
\nexpected advantages in speed and reach, and it looked early on as
\nif the fight was going to be a rout. Duncan missed on quite a few
\nspinning strike attempts, but his conventional kicks and punches
\nhurt Cannonier badly, to the point that the veteran contender had
\nto turn his back and flee to regroup. Regroup he did, however, and
\none of the stories of the fight was Cannonier\u2019s success on the feet
\nand especially on the ground. Leaning on the sneaky-effective
\ntakedown game he has developed over the last few years, Cannonier
\ngrounded Duncan repeatedly and while the Englishman was generally
\nable to return to his feet without suffering too much damage, it
\nprevented him from truly getting into a groove on the feet. The
\nsurprisingly competitive fight made it to the final horn, with the
\njudges scoring it for Duncan by 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 tallies. The
\nwin ran Duncan\u2019s streak to five straight and all but guarantees him
\na marquee matchup his next time out\u2014possibly even a title
\neliminator\u2014while Cannonier\u2019s fourth loss in his last five outings
\nleaves the 42-year-old facing some serious questions.
\n
Tasked with snapping the first losing streak of his career,
\nChase
\nHooper<\/a> (17-5-1; 9-5 UFC) wasted no time and left nothing to
\nchance, needing just 2 minutes, 15 seconds to draw Mitch
\nRamirez<\/a> (8-4; 0-3 UFC) into his world and close things out. It
\nwas not an unqualified redemption story for \u201cThe Dream,\u201d as he
\nmissed the lightweight limit, forcing a catchweight bout at 158
\npounds, but once the cage door closed, it would be difficult to
\nfind fault with Hooper\u2019s performance. He moved laterally to open
\nthe fight, forcing the shorter man to pursue him, and seized the
\nfirst opportunity to shoot for a takedown. Ramirez managed to
\nscramble back up,
\nbut Hooper moved smoothly to take his back, dragged him down to the
\nfloor and locked up a textbook rear-naked choke. From there, the
\ntap was a foregone conclusion.<\/a><\/strong> The win put Hooper back
\nin the win column after his back-to-back knockout losses to
\nAlexander
\nHernandez<\/a> and Lance
\nGibson Jr.<\/a>, while Ramirez fell to 0-4 in eight-sided cages,
\nincluding his unsuccessful bid on
\nDana White’s Contender Series<\/a>.
\n
Rising strawweight contender Fatima
\nKline<\/a> (10-1; 4-1 UFC) put on an absolute clinic, handling
\nTabatha
\nRicci<\/a> (12-5; 7-5 UFC) in increasingly dominant fashion across
\nthree rounds and outclassing her in every phase of their fightAn.
\nRicci\u2019s fast hands, forward motion and generally kinetic style gave
\nthe \u201cArchangel\u201d pause in the early going, but Kline\u2019s superiority
\nwas on display from the first time the fight hit the canvas. An
\nill-advised headlock throw attempt by \u201cBaby Shark\u201d ended with Kline
\ntaking top position, and she returned the action there with a
\nhigh-amplitude double-leg takedown late in the round, scooping the
\nBrazilian up and carrying her halfway across the cage for a slam
\nfinish. The lesson continued in Round 2, as Ricci turned a
\ndouble-leg attempt by Ricci into another sweep and dominant
\ngrappling sequence. Ricci may have been saved by the horn, gutting
\nout a deep rear-naked choke attempt as time expired. With her
\nphysical and technical advantages thoroughly established, Kline
\nspent Round 3 racking up style points: first piecing Ricci up with
\nquick combinations on the feet, then amping up the crowd with a
\ntrio of huge mat returns that approached the Suplex City limits.
\nThe judges rewarded the 26-year-old New Yorker\u2019s efforts with
\nunanimous 30-27 scores, putting her on a five-fight win streak and
\nleaving her perfect at strawweight, with the lone loss on her
\nledger coming in her promotional debut against flyweight contender
\nJasmine
\nJasudavicius<\/a>; Ricci will need to regroup after suffering
\nconsecutive losses for the first time in her career.
\n
Tommy
\nMcMillen<\/a> (11-0; 2-0 UFC) kept his professional record spotless,
\nburying fellow featherweight prospect Alberto
\nMontes<\/a> (12-2; 1-1 UFC) under an avalanche of punches in the UFC
\nOklahoma main card opener. It was evident within half a round that
\nAlberto
\nMontes<\/a> had little or no answer for the frenetic pace and
\npressure; the main question was whether he could survive it for 15
\nminutes. McMillen employed his customary go-for-broke style, coming
\nforward with long chains of punches and forcing his foe to retreat
\nin disarray. Montes showed little inclination to try and bring the
\nfight to the canvas, and on the occasions that he stood his ground
\nand threw back, McMillen simply answered his single-shot counters
\nwith another torrent of strikes. The gap between the two gradually
\nwidened\u2014McMillen did answer the question of whether he could
\nmaintain his furious output for more than a round\u2014and the fight
\nseemed headed towards a clear, dominant decision for the American,
\nbut his relentless attack and Montes\u2019 waning endurance reached a
\nturning point in the middle of the final stanza.
\nMcMillen, sensing his foe was flagging, turned up the volume, began
\ndigging shots to the body and left referee Nick Berens no option
\nbut to rescue the Venezuelan at 3 minutes, 29 seconds of Round
\n3.<\/a><\/strong>
\n
Jose
\nDelgado<\/a> and Austin
\nBashi<\/a> are two of the more promising up-and-comers in the
\nfeatherweight division and their fight played out that way, a
\ncompetitive, tense affair. A close first round appeared to be
\nslightly tilted in Bashi\u2019s favor thanks to a frenetic opening
\nexchange in which he stung Delgado, but everything turned on a dime
\nlate in the round when Delgado leveled Bashi with a huge right
\nhook. He pounced and swarmed on his fallen foe, landing some
\nfollow-up ground shots and taking Bashi\u2019s back, but couldn\u2019t secure
\na finish before the horn. Bashi was bloodied and hurt, but
\nrecovered sufficiently between rounds that he was again the busier,
\nmore aggressive fighter to open the middle frame. He remained the
\naggressor, but Delgado\u2019s sharper, more measured counters in the
\nface of his volume made it a very close round. The same dynamic
\nplayed out across the third round as well, leading to
\na predictably difficult bout to score,<\/a> but the three cageside
\njudges were unanimous in awarding the fight to Delgado (30-27,
\n29-28, 29-28).
\nJean-Paul
\nLebosnoyani<\/a> (11-2; 2-0 UFC) showed off sharp strikes and some
\nvery nimble ground work in springing the upset over Seok Hyeon
\nKo<\/a> (13-3; 2-1 UFC) in their welterweight matchup. The first
\nround was very competitive, as both men landed their share of clean
\nshots on the feet and Lebosnoyani scored a takedown that forced the
\nKorean to scramble out of danger. The action in Round 2 pivoted on
\na mid-round sequence in which Ko scooped and slammed Lebosnoyani,
\nonly for the American to sweep him directly into a mounted
\nguillotine. A few tense moments later, Ko extricated his head from
\nthe choke, but the American\u2019s ground superiority had been
\nestablished. Lebosnoyani took Ko down again late in the round, and
\ntransitioned smoothly between mount and back control while hunting
\nfor a choke. Lebosnoyani\u2019s positive momentum carried over to the
\nfinal frame, as Ko, either due to fatigue or wariness of his
\nopponent\u2019s grappling, was uncharacteristically trigger-shy. Even
\nso, Ko\u2019s power kept things close, but Lebosnoyani hoisted \u201cThe
\nKorean Tyson\u201d for a slam with under a minute left and spent the
\nbalance of the fight in the driver\u2019s seat. The official judges saw
\nit that way, and awarded \u201cMufasa\u201d the win by unanimous 29-28
\nscores.
In a matchup of Brazilian light heavyweights looking for their
\nfirst UFC win, Felipe
\nFranco<\/a> (11-2; 1-1 UFC) weathered some early punishment to pound
\nout Levi
\nRodrigues<\/a> (5-1, 1 NC; 0-1, 1 NC UFC) with a ground-and-pound
\nassault that would have done his teammate Jailton
\nAlmeida<\/a> proud. The first round was a wild affair, with both men
\nhaving their moments: \u201cBaby Monster\u201d rocked Franco badly with a
\npunch combination in the early going, but \u201cNegao\u201d recovered, took
\nRodrigues down and was pounding him with ground strikes right up to
\nthe horn. When the second round began, Franco picked up right where
\nhe left off, hurting Rodrigues with a left hand,
\ngrounding him and dropping an uninterrupted stream of heavy lefts
\nand rights until referee<\/a> Blake Grice<\/a>
\njumped in to stop the beating at 1:40 of Round 2.<\/strong> The
\ndefinitive win put the 25-year-old back on track after his
\nunsuccessful short-notice debut at heavyweight in March, while
\nRodrigues, who was signed by the UFC despite his
\nDana White’s Contender Series<\/a> win being overturned due to a
\npositive test for nandrolone, will need to regroup after his first
\ncareer loss.
\n
In a featherweight matchup thrown together less than a week from
\nfight night and bumped up to a catchweight when one of the
\nparticipants missed the divisional limit, Ezra
\nElliott<\/a> (8-0; 1-0 UFC) repeatedly grounded Damien
\nAnderson<\/a> (5-1; 0-1 UFC) en route to a unanimous decision win.
\nElliott, who weighed in at 147.5 pounds, enjoyed a visible size
\nadvantage over Anderson, who habitually competes at bantamweight,
\nand parlayed his advantages in size and strength into a
\nrinse-and-repeat wrestling attack. The first frame was a
\ncompetitive affair, as Elliott landed numerous takedowns but
\ninflicted next to no damage or submission danger, and Anderson\u2019s
\npunches while hopping on one foot were the most notable offense of
\nthe round. The fight became less competitive as the takedown
\nassault continued, however, and while BJJ standout Anderson managed
\na few nifty sweeps and scrambles across the final 10 minutes,
\nElliott was clearly the superior fighter, forcing Anderson to
\nescape from perilous positions, fight off chokes and otherwise dig
\ndeep in order to hear the final horn. The judges scored the fight
\nfor the Californian by 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28 tallies, keeping his
\nrecord spotless and garnering interest for his proper featherweight
\ndebut; Anderson will presumably have the opportunity to show he is
\na different animal at 135 pounds in his next outing.
\n
Flyweight up-and-comer Alden Coria<\/a>
\ncontinued his spotless Octagon run and extended Stewart
\nNicoll<\/a>\u2019s streak of misery, though it was a more competitive
\naffair than the -1000 betting line might have implied. Coria (13-3;
\n3-0 UFC) established his superiority on the feet right away,
\npeppering the shorter Aussie with punch combinations at range,
\nstinging him repeatedly. Nicoll (8-4; 0-4 UFC) kept things from
\nturning into a rout by leaning on his wrestling and grappling; he
\ngrounded the native Texan in each round, forced Coria to defend
\nhimself from positional advances, and even his failed takedown
\nattempts served to slow the momentum of the superior striker. As
\nthe fight progressed, however, Coria\u2019s pace on the feet and
\nscrambling ability on the ground allowed him to pull away, and he
\nappeared to win each successive round in more definitive fashion.
\nThe cageside judges agreed, awarding the 4oz Fight Team product a
\nunanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28). The win put the \u201cCobra\u201d
\nin good position to call for a Top 15 opponent in his next outing,
\nwhile Nicoll is at the mercy of the UFC\u2019s matchmakers after going
\nwinless in his first contract.
\n
In the lone heavyweight bout at UFC Oklahoma City, R.J. Harris<\/a>
\n(6-0; 1-0 UFC) made a successful Octagon debut, blasting Alvin Hines<\/a>
\n(7-2; 0-2 UFC) with a first-round uppercut and follow-up ground
\nstrikes. The massive Midwesterners spent the first few exchanges
\nfeeling out one another\u2019s defenses\u2014or lack thereof. The most
\nsignificant offense in the first minute of the fight came courtesy
\nof Hines\u2019 calf kicks, which had begun to have a visible effect on
\nHarris\u2019 lead leg. Before Harris could absorb enough damage to truly
\nalter the fight, however,
\nhe caught Hines in an unguarded moment in the pocket and launched a
\nright uppercut that lifted the shorter man completely off his
\nfeet.<\/a><\/strong> Hines went down in a heap and after several
\nstanding-to-ground bombs, referee Nick Berens stepped in for the
\nstoppage at 1:40 of Round 1. The win kept the 27-year-old Harris\u2019
\nprofessional record spotless and made him an immediate person of
\ninterest in a heavyweight division constantly desperate for new
\nfaces, while Hines, who arrived in the Octagon last year as an
\nundefeated prospect himself, is still in search of his first UFC
\nwin.
\n
In the strawweight opener, Dione
\nBarbosa<\/a> (10-4; 4-2 UFC) needed less than a round to introduce
\nAnna
\nMelisano<\/a> (6-2, 0-1 UFC) to the realities of her new promotion,
\ngrounding her and choking her out in just 4 minutes, 4 seconds.
\nThere was little surprise when the bout began and Barbosa, a
\nmultiple-time Brazilian judo champ and national team member,
\nquickly closed the distance and dragged the fight to the floor.
\nMelisano, who jumped to the UFC as a short-notice replacement for
\nthe injured Veronica
\nHardy<\/a> after being eliminated on Season 34 of \u201cThe Ultimate
\nFighter,\u201d did well to defend herself from the elite grappler for
\nseveral minutes, regaining guard and blunting the worst of the
\nBrazilian\u2019s ground-and-pound. Late in the round, however, she tried
\nto return to her feet and \u201cThe Witch\u201d was all over it,
\n
\ntaking her back, applying a rear-naked choke and cinching it up as
\nthey went tumbling back to the canvas.<\/a><\/strong> Melisano was
\nforced to tap out with less than a minute left in the round, giving
\nBarbosa her first win streak on the UFC. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"