In a gruelling stand-up battle tonight at ‘UFC On Fuel TV 3’ tonight Igor Pojrajac claimed a unanimous decision win over Fabio Maldonado.
Pokrajac secured an early takedown in this fight, but isn’t able to do a whole lot with the position. When Maldonada eventually attempts to struggle to his feet Pokrajac looks to seize his back but falls off and so now his opponent has a chance to take top control.
However Maldonado chooses to let Pokrajac up instead. It proves to be a wise decision as he then begins to pour on the pressure on the feet with short, sharp shots and Pokrajac looks hurt as he retreats into a defensive shell.
More punches fly and Pokrajac is eating a lot of punches to the head and body, but he stays standing and manages to get a clinch to break up the barrage of strikes. He’s able to land a nice knee to the head from this position, but overall there’s no doubt this was the Brazilian’s round.
Much of the second round was fought from the clinch with Pokrajac able to land some nice good knees using the plum while Maldonado was happy to blast away with hurtful shots to his opponent’s mid-section. The volume of strikes is definitely with the Brazilian and those blows are taking their toll on Pokrajac who looks to be tiring, though he rallies late in the round with a spinning back fist which Maldonado brushes off.
Both men dug deep in the final round and came out swinging yet more leather, taking big shots in the process.
Maldonado has a heck of a chin because he took some more knees to it early in the round, including a flying knee from the clinch, and kept standing.
Pokrajac gets the better of the firsr half of the round, but meanwhile he is continuing to be fed a steady diet of punches, with Maldonado again favoring the body shots and towards the end of the round it’s the Brazilian who’s beginning to get the upper hand again and in one last fire-fight toe-to-toe he lands the better shots forcing Pokrajac into reverse gear.
And that’s it so it’s down to the judges to pick between these two warriors. Surprisingly given the close nature of the fight they come to a unanimous decision verdict in favor of Igor Pokrajac (29-28 x2, 30-27).
Personally I would have given the nod to Maldonado here, but I’ve got no real complaints about Pokrajac getting the nod as both men put a lot into this fight.
