The TUF Brazil 3 Finale took place last night, the second of two UFC events in the space of 24hrs.
It was a case of ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ in the main event as Stipe Miocic hurt Fabio Maldonado with his first punch of the fight and then dropped him with a flush straight right before raining down a few hammerfists for the TKO finish with just 35 seconds gone.
Maldonado has proven to be durable at light-heavyweight, but realistically he could easily be fighting at middleweight, so stepping up to heavyweight against a top ten contender on short notice was just a bridge too far and this fight shouldn’t have been put together in the first place.
Antonio Carlos Jr won the final of the heavyweight section of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’, using takedowns and periods of control on top against Vitor Miranda to earn a fairly comfortable unanimous decision victory.
A little earlier Warlley Alves was also crowned an ‘Ultimate Fighter’ winner, this time at middleweight after defeating Marcio Alexandre Jr.
Alves looked like a promising talent here, continually pressuring his opponent, Consistently coming off best in the striking exchanges and racking up takedowns. The finish early in the third round was the most impressive aspect of his performance though, getting a hold of a guillotine choke, dropping to the mat with it and rendering Alexandre unconscious in a surprisingly short amount of time.
Demain Maia showed off his superior grappling skills en-route to a clean sweep on the judges scorecards against newcomer Alexander Yakovlev.
Maia was dominant from start to finish, but seemed happy just to be in complete control and never stepped up a gear to find a finish which took some of the shine of his victory.
The main card opener between Robbie Peralta and Rony Jason was as much more spirited display from both men in a fight that was fought largely on the feet over the course of three rounds.
Peralta used leg kicks effectively throughout the fight and generally initiated more of the exchanges between the two which helped keep Jason from being overly offensive himself. All three judges saw the fight differently which lead to conflicting scorecards, but ultimately Peralta earned a split decision win (29-28, 27-30, 30-27).
See all the results from last night’s event below.
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Main Card:
Stipe Miocic def. Fabio Maldonado via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 0:35
Antonio Carlos Jr. def. Vitor Miranda via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Warlley Alves def. Marcio Alexandre Jr. via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 3, 0:25
Demian Maia def. Alexander Yakovlev via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Robbie Peralta def. Rony Jason via split decision (29-28, 27-30, 30-27)
Prelims:
Rashid Magomedov def. Rodrigo Damm via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Elias Silverio def. Ernest Chavez via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 3, 4:21
Gasan Umalatov def. Paulo Thiago via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Kevin Souza def. Mark Eddiva via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 4:52
Ricardo Abreu def. Wagner Silva via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 1:06
Marcos Rogerio de Lima def. Richardson Moreira via knockout (punches) – Round 1, 0:20
Pedro Munhoz def. Matt Hobar via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 2:47
