Francisco Trinaldo was able to beat Dwight Grant by split decision tonight at UFC Fight Night 196, despite being deducted a point for an eyepoke.
Round One:
Grant feelings out with the jab then lands a right hand. Grant pawing at his opponent from range with his long reach advantage.
Right hand from Trinaldo. Two punches from Grant just whiff the target. Kick from Trinaldo. Grant goes to the body and lands a punch upstairs too.
Jab for Grant. Outside leg kick from Trinaldo and then one from Grant. Fast left hand from Trinaldo. Winging hook from Grant just misses and Trinaldo staggers off-balance for a moment. Kick from Trinaldo.
Right hand from Grant. He’s mostly just feeling out with these punches rather than putting a lot into the them though.
Body punch from Grant, but then eats a body kick in response from Trinaldo. Exchange in close and Trinaldo seemed to land a solid counter there.
Inside leg kick for Grant. Counter punch from Trinaldo. Head kick attempt from Trinaldo that’s blocked. Both men with a flurry of strikes and Trinaldo’s seemed to land cleaner.
Round Two
Glancing right hand from Grant. Ref stops for a moment to warn Trinaldo not to lead with his fingers out.
Head kick attempt from Trinaldo, but gets caught with a counter punch. left hand over the top grazes Grant’s head.
Grant misses a hook and gets caught with a counter. Explosive action all of a sudden as Trinaldo goes for a head kick and Grant lands a right hand. Trinaldo staggers backwards to the mat off-balance. Grant follows him but they quickly are back up to striking range again.
Grant looking to come over the top with a right hand. Kick for Trinaldo. He lands a low one too. Trinaldo with a left hook to set up a takedown attempt. He has Grant’s back and is working up against the cage looking for a possible attempt to put his opponent down.
Grant staying upright for now though and Trinaldo lands some knees to the back of the thigh. Grant turns into him. Trinaldo mashes him into the cage, but then Grant pushes him away and gets back to the center of the Octagon.
Grant swinging hard in the final seconds without a clean connection and Trinaldo partially lands a left over the top.
Round Three:
Left hook for Grant. Grant looking for more punches, but he gets a strike to the groin in response and after trying to fight through it the ref takes pity on him and breaks the action so he can recover.
Low kick for trinaldo, but then a finger strays to Grant’s eye as he pushes away and Grant is immediately in distress, forcing another time out.
Thankfully Grant does recover, but before the restart the ref deducts a point from Trinaldo, who was warned earlier to avoid leading with his fingers open.
They restart and Trinaldo looks to be moving forward with more urgency now. Grant staying on his back foot and keeping his range with feeling punches
Trinaldo not really letting his hands go. Grant lands to the body. Trinaldo with an overhand and then works nicely into a takedown.
Well over three minutes in the fight remaining with Trinaldo working from half guard in the center of the Octagon.
A minute passes without much action as Grant tries to just keep Trinaldo tight to him so he can’t work any kind of meaningful offense.
Trinaldo staying patient and starts to inch forward trying to pass guard. Light punches and then that distracts enough for Trinaldo to move into full mount.
Grant does well to bring him back to half-guard quickly. However, Trinaldo is able to pass again into full moutn in the final minute.
Body punches from trinaldo. He’s trying to find room to posture up now, looking for a potential submission or ground-and-pound. He’s not having much success though and instead has to settle for control on top.
Decision:
To the scorecards we go, and Trinaldo’s deducted point will factor into the verdict here. In the end it boils down to a split decision, and it’s Trinaldo who gets the win (29-27 x2, 27-29).
