Underwhelming fight here with Sheldon Westcott doing his best to grind out a win entirely against the cage, but Pawel Pawlak remained patient and eventually worked into the fight as his opponent tired in the later rounds to emerge with the victory.
Round One:
Westcott straight into a takedown attempt, pushing Pawlak to the fence. He gets the takedown, but Pawlak is straight back up.
Westcott remains in the clinch against the cage though and they grapple for position. He almost pulls Pawlak to the mat, but he stays up. Westcott lands a knee.
Westcott continuing to work hard and pulls Pawlak’s legs out from under him to get to the mat. Credit to Pawlak though, he’s right back up again. Still stuck in Westcott’s relentless clinch though.
Half way through the round and still in this position with Westcott showing his strength as he controls the action against the cage. Westcott tries to get around to his back, but is unsuccessful and Pawlak lands a few punches.
Suddenly Pawlak gets Westcott down with a hip toss, but this time it’s Westcott who’s straight back up and back into the clinch yet again. A few knees being exchange here and there, but not really a lot of action here. 30 seconds to go and Pawlak almost goes down, but remains upright, continuing to show good takedown defense.
Round Two:
Pawlak with a head kick attempt to start that’s blocked. Now Pawlak’s landing a big knee and Westcott stumbles to the mat. Not clear how hurt he actually was by that, but he goes straight into the clinch and we’re now looking like being in for a repeat performance of the first round.
Battling against the cage here and Westcott gets a takedown only to pop up to his feet immediately.
With three minutes remaining the ref finally steps in for the first time to break up a stalemate against the cage. Doesn’t make much difference though as they separate, then Westcott pushes straight back into the clinch.
No action here and not before time the ref is in again to separate them. This time Pawlak tries to make it count, throwing a head kick and punches.
Westcott tries to clinch again, but this time Pawlak gets away. Westcott looks gassed and Pawlak moves in and takes him down. Westcott walks up the cage and manages to get up. Not for long though as Pawlak takes him down nicely and ends the round on top in side control landing a few nice strikes.
Westcott tired, but Pawlak might also be as he shuffles over to his corner on his knees and spends the recovery period sitting on the mat rather than his stool.
Round Three:
Tired looking strike from Westcott and then eats a solid blow from Pawlak. Pawlak’s still got pop in his punches and starts to tag Westcott.
Westcott into the clinch. That seems to be all he has at this stage in the fight. Pawlak tries a hip throw, but they stay on their feet.
Westcott really trying to muscle a takedown here and hoists Pawlak up, then down to the mat. It’s another momentary victory though as Pawlak is up as he’s been doing repeatedly in this fight.
Another slick hip toss from Pawlak and he gets on top. He’s working in half guard and if he can keep the fight here for the remaining two and a half minutes this fight could well be his.
Side control for Pawlak and lands a little ground and pound. Into north south position now and then looks for his back, but there’s a bit of a scramble and Westcott gets up.
Westcott into that clinch he favors with less than a minute to go, but he needs to do something more than that to win this round. He needs to go offensive, but he’s stuck looking for a takedown as the seconds tick down.
Pawlak gets a little space with just seconds remaining and tries a spinning kick and a couple of strikes behind it to end the round with the upper hand.
Decision:
Pawlak did well to prevent being completely stifled by Westcott’s clinch game and is justly rewarded with a unanimous decision victory (29-28 x3).
