Daniel Pineda came into his fight with Herbert Burns tonight at UFC 252 as an underdog, but emerged with a second round TKO victory after a series of hard-hitting ground and pound blows.
Round One:
Burns with a front kick to the body. He tries to flurry, but Pineda spins away. Pineda with a nice punch. High kick attempt from Burns.
Burns gets a takedown. Pineda manages to escape back to his feet, but already sporting a cut to his eye. Pineda now works a takedown of his own against the cage.
Pineda working in Burns guard and lands a few elbows and punches. Now he moves into half-guard. Burns uses his legs to push him away.
Pineda explodes back down to the mat with a good punch. Burns trying to work for a submission from his back, but nothing doing for now.
Pineda settles back into Burns guard and lands some hard elbow strikes. Body-head combo now. More body punches land.
Burns still trying to fish for potential submission opportunities, but meanwhile Pineda blasts him with a few big punches.
Pineda stands over Burns and blasts him with a big punch and then again is back into his guard. More ground and pound for him. Burns tries to land a couple of elbows from his back.He takes a breather and then lands a final elbow at the end of the round.
Round Two:
Left hook for Burns. Now a straight punch. Leg kick for Pineda. Big right hand for Burns and then straight into a solid takedown in the center of the Octagon.
Burns lands a few nice punches but Pineda is able to stand back up. Burns drags him back down though and is locked into half-guard. Pineda dropping down repeated elbows to his thigh though from this position.
Burns now settles in on top still in half-guard. Pineda still chipping away with punches. Now Pineda scrambles hard, but Burns somehow manages to stay on his back. However, Pineda then does manage to get on top.
Pineda getting to side control and is trying to get the crucifix position. Now Pineda starts to drop down elbows and then punches.
Burns in a bad spot here and clearly not happy, grunting in pain as Pineda lands more nasty elbow strikes. That only inspires Pineda to keep the onslaught going and the referee decides enough damage has been done and stops the fight, giving Pineda an impressive TKO victory at 4.37mins of the second round.
