Despite breaking one of his toes in the first round, Uriah Hall was still able to do enough in the striking exchanges to earn himself a unanimous decision victory over Thiago Santos tonight at UFC 175.
Round One:
Hall thinkgs about a spinning attack to start, but pulls away from it at the last moment. Santos lands with a leg kick.
Santos with a couple of punches that comes up short. Hall lands a leg kick and Santos gives him one in return.
Santos with a spinning kick that misses. He lands an inside leg soon after though, then another one and a third for good measure.
Right hand gets through for Hall and Santos continues to attack his legs with kicks. Santos goes up high with a kick now, but it’s blocked.
Hall walking down Santos despit the kicks now and looking to work his punches. Another leg kick from Santos lands solidly though.
Another couple land, but Hall catches the second and uses it to take Santos to the mat. Santos right back up though.
Hall lands a nice right hand and Santos tries to counter with his own punch, but misses and spins around with the momentum of the miss.
Hall starting to shift up a gear, bobbing his head and moving his arms almost Anderson Silva style. Santos backing up and when he tries to throw, Hall is able to use head movement to get out the way.
Hall’s not actually throwing many strikes here though and the round comes to an end.
Round Two:
Hall appears to have a broken toe, but he’s going to continue fighting! He’s still moving fairly freely and is throwing some kicks too here early in the second round.
Overhand right for Hall and Santos tries to counter, but just misses. Santos lands a kick to the body.
Nice right hand lands for Santos, but Hall shakes his head. Hall lands a leg kick.
Right hand connects for Hall. Then he catches a kick from Santos and dumps him to the mat. Again Santos stands quickly though.
Santos presses forward with a one-two, but Hall calmly steps away from the blows.
Hall doing a good joob of steering clear of some of Santos’ strikes and landing some quick leg kicks of his own.
Santos ducks in for a takedown, but Hall shoves him off. Hall lands a nice jab. He tries a spinning head kick, but Santos gets away from it.
Santos with a couple of jumping kick attempts and a spinning one for good measure, but without much effect.
Hall tries a rolling thunder kick to end the round, but it doesn’t land. Hall limps back to his corner at the end of the round, clearly feeling the effect of his damaged toe.
Round Three:
The doctor speaks to Hall again before the start of the round regarding his foot, but he wants to continue.
Hall avoids a few punches from Santos early. Hall fakes a few kicks then lands a teep kick. He lands an inside kick and a punch behind it.
Hall leaps into the air with a spinning kick, but doesn’t land. He lands a nice combination of punches instead though. And another one.
Santos with a low spinning kick attempt. Hall again moving back out of range as Santos tries to attack. Good punch lands solidly for Hall.
Leg kick for Hall and then out of reach from Santos’ counter. Half the round to go. Santos lands to the body as Hall connects to the head.
Santos with a head kick attempt that’s blocked. Santos tries to land a punch and instead gets greeted with a well timed spinning kick to the body from Hall.
Hall kicks to the body and then to the face in one swift motion that catches Santos off-guard but doesn’t connect hard enough to really make a big impact.
Jumping kick from Santos unfortunately connects to Hall’s groin which forces a stoppage. Hall staggers a little as if his foot is bothering him, but he’s got five minutes to recover from the illegal kick and he doesn’t need all of it.
Back to it they go and Santos is suddenly looking to get into the clinch game. He manages to get Hall’s back and press him against the cage, landing some knee strikes to his legs.
Hall drops down with a kimura attempt, but Santos gets out from that and gets on top, landing some nice ground and pound to end the round.
Decision:
It was a close fight, but the judges see it unanimously in Hall’s favor (29-28 x2, 30-27) and that’s a nice win for him given the duress he was under due to that broken toe he suffered in the opening round of the fight.
