Anthony Pettis emerged with a submission victory in his featherweight debut against Charles Oliveira tonight at UFC On FOX 21, but he had to work hard for it.
Round One:
Early kick from Pettis is caught by Oliveira who presses him up against the cage looking for a takedown. Pettis working hard to defend this and shows great defense as the Brazilian tries his best to find away to get him down.
Eventually Pettis is able to break away. Oliveira with a push kick. Pettis tries to land a punch, but Oliveira immediately goes back into the clinch and shoves him to the cage.
Oliveira manages to get to Pettis’ back and then drags him down to the mat. Oliveira hoping for a rear-naked choke, but Pettis is able to spin around and ends up on top.
As soon as he can, Pettis backs away and gets back to his feet. Pettis lands a good body kick. Oliveira flops onto his back hoping to lure Pettis into his ground game, but no dice.
Back up to his feet again and Pettis unleashes an excellent combination of strikes that hurts Oliveira and he drops back down to the mat. He’s in trouble and Pettis knows it, so this time he does follow Oliveira to the mat and starts to blast away at him with strikes. Oliveira tries for an armbar, but Pettis escapes quickly.
Pettis continuing to work on the mat with him though. Oliveira manages to scramble up and get on top of Pettis. He takes Pettis’ back, but it’s not long before Pettis is back on top landing more punishing blows. Oliveira still hunting for takedowns, but nothing doing for now and a rollercoaster round comes to an end.
Round Two:
Oliveira aggressive with kicks and punches as he marches forward at the start of the round. Pettis with a kick and then a hard body punch.
Pettis trying for the takedown and Oliveira is happy to go to the mat. Pettis thinks better of it and back away.
Pettis with a head kick that’s blocked. Pettis on the attack again and Oliveira drops to the mat. Perhaps some gamesmanship there though as he’d much prefer to get this fight on the mat again.
Oliveria with a couple of nice kicks. He’s not afraid to mix it up with Pettis if need be. He presses him up against the cage, but not for long.
Nice jab from the Brazilian, then back into the clinch. He spins to the back and then hops up onto Pettis and drags him down to the mat as he did in the first round.
Dangerous times for Pettis as Oliveira is extremely skillsed with submissions. He’s starting to hunt for the rear-naked choke, but again Pettis does very well to reverse the psition and end on top.
Pettis tries to back away, but Oliveira pops back up into the clinch and works him back to the cage. Pettis escapes though and gets back to striking range.
Nice one-two from Pettis and an elbow in return from Oliveira. He lands to the body. Big spinning kick to the midsection from Pettis.
A few punches land for Pettis, but then Oliveira lands a nice takedown and starts to work some ground and pound punches as the round ends.
Round Three:
Exchange of kicks from both men. Nice right hand for Oliveira. He barrels into a takedown and lands it.
Oliveira quickly moves to side control. Pettis tries for an armbar, but is shrugged off. Pettis briefly to turtle position and then Oliveira gets his back, but then he reverses for the third time in the evening to get on top. Nice work from him.
They go back upright, and Oliveira tries to get the takedown again, but this time Pettis sinks in a guillotine choke as he falls to the mat and it’s tight! Oliveira was caught out by that and he’s left with no option but to tap out, 1.49mins into the third round.
