K. Vieira celebrates victory at UFC Kansas (Photo: Josh Hedges/UFC)
The UFC Kansas preliminary card had a little bit of everything: blowouts, submissions and evenly matched duels were the order of the day. Highlights include duels involving Brazilians. Ketlen Scallop maintained his unbeaten record in his career and beat Ashlee Evans-Smith by decision, while Augusto “Tanquinho” Mendes lost to aljamain sterling. Furthermore, close calls, submissions and very even duels were the order of the day.
Tanquinho x Sterling
Tanquinho faced a challenge in Sterling, number 8 in the bantamweight rankings. Even with good sweeps and showing danger with his back to the ground, the Brazilian, world jiu-jitsu champion, ended up being defeated by Sterling's volume of standing strikes, in addition to the Jamaican's superior takedown game.
In the first round, Sterling was superior in striking, using his unusual movement to confuse Tanquinho. Upon achieving the takedown, the Jamaican found himself in danger with a beautiful reversal from the Brazilian, but he used his wrestling experience to stay out of danger. The second round was a little less even, with Sterling using his superior striking to keep Mendes at bay.
With his back against the wall, Tanquinho reached the third round with more enthusiasm in his exchange, allowing Sterling to take him down more than once. The Brazilian looked tired and, despite trying to repeat the takedown he achieved before, he was unable to put his opponent back on the ground and the Jamaican was declared the winner.
With this, the Brazilian has two defeats and one victory in the UFC. His other setback was to the reigning bantamweight division champion, cody garbrandt. Tanquinho accepted this fight with little preparation time and ended up getting knocked out. His only triumph in Ultimate was against Frankie Saenz, by decision.
Ketlen wins and maintains unbeaten record
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In the first fight of the night, Ketlen Scallop surprised by completely dominating the three rounds against Ashlee Evans-Smith. Number 13 in the bantamweight rankings, the North American seemed lost with the Brazilian's powerful right hand, which broke her guard repeatedly during the 15 minutes of action.
Ketlen's counterattack was also up to date. The Nova União fighter took advantage of Evans-Smith's shot attempts to unleash a right hook, which hurt her opponent's left eye. Throughout the fight, Viera counterattacked with the hook, in addition to using a sequence that ended with an uppercut. The Brazilian dominated the standing actions and even managed a takedown during the duel.
Ketlen's decision victory means she remains undefeated in the UFC and in her career. In Ultimate, there are two victories and she reached eight victories in her record. His other triumph in the organization was against Kelly Faszholz, in October last year, in his debut.
More Fights
In the other fights in the preliminary portion, the highlight was Zak Cummings' guillotine victory over Nathan Coy. The home fighter, Cummings took advantage of an oversight by the ex-TUF veteran to land the blow from the mount. Coy refused to give the three taps and ended up blacked out. Referee Mike England was criticized on social media for not immediately realizing that Nathan was unconscious.
Another great fight was the flyweight duel between Tim Elliott e Louis Smolka. In 15 minutes, the two exchanged a lot of turns on the ground, with several takedowns and submission attempts, mainly from Elliott, who returned to the UFC as TUF 24 champion and gave the champion a hard time Demetrious Johnson. In the end, victory by fair decision for the former title challenger.
Along with Elliott x Smolka, the big fight of the preliminaries was the duel between Andrew Sanchez e Anthony Smith. Sanchez, winner of TUF 23, dominated the fight with a mix of combinations and takedowns, when he was surprised, in the third round, by a devastating sequence from Smith. The “Coração de Leão” knocked out his opponent with a kick to the head after a combination of punches.
UFC Kansas preliminary card results
Heavyweight: Alexander Volkov derrotou Roy Nelson in the unanimous decision of the judges (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Bantamweight: Tom Duquesnoy beat Patrick Williams by TKO at 28 seconds of R2
Lightweight: Rashid Magomedov won Bobby Green by split decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-29)
Fly weight: Tim Elliott won Louis Smolka by unanimous decision (3x 30-27)
Bantamweight: aljamain sterling won Augusto Tanquinho by unanimous decision (3x 29-28)
Light Heavyweight: Devin Clark won Jake collier by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26)
Average weight: Anthony Smith won Andrew Sanchez by knockout at 3m52s of R3
Welterweight: Zak Cummings beat Nathan Coy via submission (guillotine choke) at 4:21 of R1
Bantamweight: Ketlen Scallop defeated Ashlee Evans-Smith via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
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