Chang-ho Lee battled his way to a second round ground-and-pound TKO finish over Cortavious Romious tonight at UFC On ESPN 65.
Round One
Romious lands a jab. Now an inside leg kick, but Lee responds with a barrage of short punches inside. Uppercut from Romious and Lee goes in against the cage for a takedown attempt. It doesn’t happen straight away, but then he gets the gets the trip and ends up in full mount.
Romious does well to escape from this tough spot and get back to his feet. And now it’s Romious who lands a powerful takedown. He overcommits to try to taking the back though and gives up the position. Lee able to scramble, take the back in the center of the Octagon and chips away with ground-and-pound while sinking in the body triangle.
More pitter-patter ground-and-pound from Lee as Romious struggles to break free from the body triangle without success. Then in the final minute Lee rolls and looks for a potential submission, then blasts the now bloodied Romious with aggressive ground-and-pound.
Romious in danger, but manages to scramble out and get on top late in the round. Lee returns the favor though in the final few seconds of the round.
Round Two
Kick from Romious to start the second round. They both fire off punches but don’t connect. Romious misses with an uppercut as Lee steps in for a knee that unfortunately strays to the groin and forces a timeout so he can recover.
Back to it they go. Lee moves in with fast strikes. Romious counters with a takedown and goes for the back. He latches on and then goes for a potential armbar attempt, but he doesn’t quite have it and that enables Lee to get on top close to the cage.
Half-guard for Lee. A few punches from him, but Romious works back to his feet. 50/50 position and then Romious drops down looking for a possible armbar. It’s a bit speculative though and Lee manages to get free from that and return to top position.
Lee gets to the back and flattens Romious out. He starts to blast him with left and rights. A series of right hands from Lee and then nasty elbows as Romious becomes increasingly bloodied, which leads the ref to step in to save him from further punishment. Lee gets the TKO victory at 3.48mins of the second round.
