Jesse Taylor screwed up in his first opportunity to be crowned ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ years ago, but he siezed the moment tonight to redeem himself with a second round submission victory over Dhiego Lima to be crowned the winner of TUF Season 25.
Round One:
Taylor immediately swoops in for a takedown. He has to settle for continuing to work for it against the cage. Lima defending well for now, but Taylor isn’t giving up and briefly does have his fellow TUF finalist on the mat.
Lima pops back up, but Taylor remains stuck to him like glue and hauls him down again. Lima straight back to his feet. Taylor working at a high tempo here though and lands another big takedown.
Now he’s got Lima down properly and is able to start working some ground and pound from inside Lima’s closed guard.
Lima working back towards the cage. However, Taylor sees the opportunity to go to the back and work a choke, but Lima is able to escape.
Taylor pulls him down to the mat again and is on his back looking for the rear-naked choke. Lima fights free of the submission, but he just can’t get Taylor off him and get a breather for the entirety of this round.
Final 15 seconds and Taylor is working to Lima’s back yet again, then opts to just blast down some solid ground and pound to end the round.
It’s already clear just how much Taylor wants to make the most of this second opportunity to work his way back into the UFC.
Round Two:
Taylor reaching with a right hand, but instead it’s Lima who floors him with a left. However, Lima follows him down and Taylor scrambles, gets to his opponent’s back and then sinks in a rear-naked choke. It’s in tight and Lima taps out!
Taylor gets redemption and is the next Ultimate Fighter, winning the chance to return to the UFC and also bank a hefty $290,000 in prize money.
