Gaston Bolanos was able to outstrike Cortavious Romious while also proving to be tricky enough to deal with on the mat to emerge with a unanimous decision victory tonight at UFC Fight Night 247.
Round One:
Body kick for Bolanos to start. Inside low kick from Romious. Head kick attempt from Bolanos. Bolanos catches Romious and puts him down for a moment, but he seems ok as he gets back up quickly.
Both miss a punch apiece at the same time. Romious in on a taekdown now and mashes Bolanos up against the cage, then slams him to the canvas.
Romious looking for a submission and ends up on his back. He’s still looking to set something up here, but is unable to and they work back to the feet against the cage. Bolanos still clinches up but then backs off.
Solid kicks from Bolanos. Now both are starting to fire off a few punches too without landing cleanly. Low kicks for Bolanos. Thunderous body kick from him.
Perfectly timed takedown for Romious under a punch but Bolanos does well to defend this against the cage. Now he reverses the clinch position.
Romious breaks away. Right hand from Romious and follows up with more punches to send Bolanos down late in the round. He follows him down but there’s not enough time left in the round to take advantage of it.
Round Two:
Body kick for Bolanos. left and right hand for Romious to set up a takedown against the cage. He lands another thumping takedown.
Romious finds himself in an awkward spot but adjusts and manages to secure the back. He’s got the body triangle locked in and is starting to work for a rear-naked choke, but Bolanos fends it off.
Romious switches arms and almost gets it under the chin, but Bolanos survives that attempt too. Unusual escape from Bolanos now as he scoots up his opponents body. He starts landing a few elbows to the head from this position and then fully escapes.
Now it’s Bolanos who manages to get a takedown. He lands a few good elbows. More landing now and Romious tries to escape but looks to be wilting as the round ends.
Round Three:
Inside leg kick for Bolanos. He misses a head kick attempt. Body kick from Romious but slips to the mat afterwards. He makes up for that by trying to go for a possible calf slicer. Awkward spot here with neither fighter really in control, but Romious is able to work his way on top.
Bolanos seems to surprise Romious by going for a triangle choke, but it remains to be seen whether he was the technique to finish this. Bolanos certainly game on the mat despite being a muay thai fighter, but he’s unable to lock up the submission here and they go back upright.
Romious trying to manufacture something here but ends up slipping to the mat and Bolanos gets on top. Bolanos with some ground-and-pound now, but Romious is able to stand and clinch up. Bolanos reverses the position.
Back to striking. Body kick for Bolanos. Romious able to land a takedown in the final minute. Bolanos kicks him off but he gets right back on top. His coach is right there outside the cage urging him to land damage to win the round, but he looks spent and doesn’t take that advice on board. We’re headed to the scorecards.
Decision:
Romious was unable to get his ground game going as well he might have expected against Bolanos, who proved to be the better striker and also seemed to have better cardio late in the fight to earn a unanimous decision victory (30-26, 30-27 x2).
