UFC 216: With an impeccable performance, Werdum submits Harris and asks for a fight for the belt

Werdum submitted Harris in the first round (Photo: Reproduction/Facebook UFC)dum

After changing opponents hours before his fight, Fabricio Werdum, impeccably, overcame adversity, made peace with victory and left the bad phase in the past. With a brilliant performance, the former heavyweight champion took an important step towards a new title fight by finishing Walt Harris, who replaces the injured Derrick Lewis, at 1m05s of the first round of the third fight on the main card of UFC 216, held in the early hours of this Sunday (08), in Las Vegas (USA). With the triumph, Werdum recovers from the recent setback against alistair overeem, in July this year, while 'The Big Ticket', who had two positive results, lost his fifth in eight fights at home.

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“I'm very happy because my opponent changed three hours before, but fighting is my life and I want to show everyone that I'm the best in the world. The fight against Overeem is in the past. Stipe Miocic, come here, I want to face you again and get my belt back, I’m sure I’ll get it back”, declared Werdum, still in the octagon.

Although important, the positive result still does not guarantee Werdum a fight for the heavyweight belt. Francis Ngannou and Overeem, who will face each other at UFC 218 in December, are also in contention to be the champion's next challenger Stipe Miocic.

The fight 

The fight started off studiously, but Werdum soon did his homework and took the fight to the ground, landing on mount. In a very technical way, he soon went to the back, swept and caught Harris' arm, who quickly tapped out.

Mara Romero Borella runs over Brazilian Kalindra Faria and finishes in R1

The second Brazilian debutant of the night, Kalindra Faria started her career in the UFC in a negative way. Against the also debutante Mara Romero Borella, the São Paulo native didn’t even have the chance to show her game. Taken to the ground in the opening seconds of the duel, she was easily involved by the Italian's ground game, who won with a submission at 2:52 of the first round. This was the 12th victory of Mara's career, which was Kalindra's sixth setback.

Right at the beginning of the fight, Borella made a good takedown and took the fight to the ground. On top, he quickly passed guard and went to mount. In an attempt to defend herself, Kalindra ended up giving her back to the Italian, who took advantage of the gap and caught the stickleback. With no option, the Brazilian was forced to give three taps in withdrawal.

Beneil Dariush draws with Evan Dunham in busy fight 

Dariush x Dunham ended in a draw (Photo: Reproduction/InstagramUFCBrasil)

In the first fight of the main card, the lightweights Beneil Dariush e Evan dunham featured in the second draw of the event, after the fight between Lando vannata e Bobby Green also end in equality. Better in the first round, with a knockdown applied, Dariush felt the rhythm and ended up accepting Dunham's game, who ended the duel better. The result breaks Evan's four-fight win streak, while Dariush, who was knocked out by Edson Barboza last March, failed to recover in the category.

UFC 216

MAIN CARD 

Lightweight: Tony Ferguson derrotou Kevin Lee by submission (triangle) at 4m02s of R3

Fly weight: Demetrious Johnson defeated Ray Borg by submission (armbar) at 3:15 of R5

Heavyweight: Fabricio Werdum derrotou Walt Harris by submission (armbar) at 1m05 of R1

Fly weight: Mara Romero Borella defeated Kalindra Faria via submission (thronehold) at 2m52s of R1

Lightweight: Beneil Dariush tied with Evan dunham in the majority decision of the judges (29×27, 28×28, 28×28)

PRELIMINARY CARD 

Bantamweight: cody stmann defeated Tom Duquesnoy via split decision (29×28, 28×29, 30×27)

Lightweight: Lando Vannatta drew with Bobby Green in the judges' decision (29×27, 27×29, 28×28)

Straw weight: Poliana Botelho defeated Pear Gonzales by unanimous decision of the judges (30×27, 30×27, 30×27)

Fly weight: Matt schnell defeated Marco Beltrán by unanimous decision of the judges (30×27, 29×28, 30×27)

Flyweight: John Moraga defeated Magomed Bibulatov by TKO at 1:38 of R1

Average weight: Brad Tavares derrotou Thales leites by unanimous decision of the judges (30×26, 30×26, 30×27)