Karl Roberson showed off his developing ground game tonight as he narrowly edged his way past Wellington Turman by split decision at UFC Fight Night 155.
Round One:
One-two for Turman and then a counter punch from Roberson. Both men firing off toe-to-toe here. hard kick for Turman. Leg kick from Roberson.
Turman tries for a takedown and Roberson stuffs it for now as his back hits the cage. Turman determined to get this takedown though and after some adjustments does well to do just that.
Turman in side control. Roberson starting to work back to his feet now and almost does so, but Turman grabs his neck and that keeps him down for now.
Roberson doing well here though as he manages to pull off a reversal to end up on top. Turman working for an armbar and Roberson slams him to the mat to free himself.
Big punch for Roberson and he starts to settle into Turman’s guard here. Roberson postures up, stands over his opponent and eats an upkick for his troubles before going back down on top of him.
Roberson with a few strikes. hook for Roberson as we approach the final minute of the round. Elbows for Roberson. Now he does well to improve to half-guard and lands another elbow. A few more short shots land and he keeps Turman down for the final second of the round.
Round Two:
One-two for Turman and then a counter from Roberson. Now a big kick from Roberson. He throws another upstairs that’s blocked.
Fast left hand from Roberson, pulls his head back out of range and then comes in with a one-two. Roberson now into the clinch against the cage. Nice elbow strike.
Roberson going for a single leg now, but lets go. Turman reverses and takes Roberson’s back looking for a takedown. he lifts him up and gets him to one knee, but doesn’t complete the takedown and he gets back up.
Roberson manages to break free and they jockey for position in the clinch against the cage. Turman manages to land a takedown with almost two minutes left in the round to work.
Roberson trying to scramble and stand, but Turman takes his back as he does so. Roberson thinking about a choke, but he slips backwards and Roberson reverses to get on top now.
30 seconds remaining and Roberson is settling for sitting in his opponent’s guard without too much urgency here and the time ticks away.
Round Three:
Front kick to the body from Roberson. One-two from him. Hard spinning kick to the body from Vettori. In the clinch Roberson lands a knee to the body.
Turman clinches up against the cage. he takes his back as he did in the second round. He brings him down and starts to work a choke, then ends up in full mount.
He drops down an elbow strike. He grinds his elbow into his opponent’s face. Another elbow lands, now he takes Roberson’s back and works for the rear-naked choke.
Roberson manages to scramble though to break free from that, but still has Turman all over him. Roberson tries to get to his feet, but has to settle for staying on his knees as Turman clambers over him and starts looking for the choke again.
90 seconds remaining and he puts in the rear-naked choke. Roberson defending as best he can in the final minute now.
Good work from Roberson as he explodes and reverses the position. Now Roberson blasts him with a few hard punches, but then puzzlingly opts to stand over Turman and doesn’t try to put a final stamp on the round, instead letting the final seconds tick down. Strange decision making there.
Decision:
Roberson gambled in thhe final stages of the fight by not going for a little more offense, but it narrowly pays off as he earns a split decision victory (29-28 x2, 28-29).
