Table of Contents
Fight of the Night:
Justin Tafa vs. Jared Vanderaa
Performances of the Night:
Carla Esparza
Bruno Silva
Rob Font defeated Cody Garbrandt via unanimous decision
Rob Font:
Obviously I have to watch it, it felt right. I’m not sure if I won the first… I felt like I lost the first round and after that, I think I won every single round. I almost had a submission I thought. Everything went smooth. I have to go back, look and fix the mistakes, capitalize on what I did good. It felt good.
I believe in the first two rounds he was landing a couple of takedowns. Once I adjusted it with the over hooks and the pressure, it was all striking from there. Not getting hit with the big shots – he landed a couple of good shots – but just making sure I never really got hit with anything super clean and just stayed disciplined.
I just kind of kept him at range, what we call ABC range. I kept him at the A and I tried to keep myself at the C and not really be in that B range too long since when I did, I did get hit. I couldn’t go back there and had to stay at a safe range and keep him as far as I possibly could.
You get to see it further. When you’re in close distance, you have to be a lot sharper, a lot quicker, a lot faster. He is quicker than me, his head movement, he’s really smooth. Not being there and trading that B range, you either are all the way in or all the way out. That B and C range is where everything happens.
It was just being disciplined, listening to my coach and just not really going for the finish too hard. I’m always going to try it once here and there, it’s hard to not, but discipline came through for this one and I just stayed on the course, just listened.
I figured he wouldn’t be shooting that much. Great timing on the takedowns, he timed them perfectly. I figured if he did try to take it down, he would want to do a lot more of ground work, but you could tell he just wanted to take me down, hold me and then punch. It worked out.
This is huge. First main event, big opportunity and I think I passed it with flying colors.
Honestly I couldn’t tell. I asked what round it was, I didn’t know. I just let it flow. Cardio felt great and I got hit too. They say once you get hit, your cardio starts slowly coming down, but I felt great. I just didn’t know what round it was. I couldn’t tell, it kind of was all a blur. I just knew I had to just listen and just keep jabbing really.
For right now I just want to get back home, spend some time with the family, friends and the team and just get back in the gym. After beating that guy there’s nothing but monsters coming for me.
Carla Esparza defeated Yan Xiaonan via TKO at 2:58 of round 2
Carla Esparza:
I feel like I did everything in our game plan to a T. Literally things we were working on in the back and working this whole camp went like perfection in the fight. I’m super happy with my performance.
To be honest I was a little surprised she didn’t have more for me as far as the takedown goes. I’ve seen her defend the takedown against Claudia [Gadelha] and secure a win that way so I thought I was going to have a little bit more of a tough time. Honestly I’ve been working my wrestling a lot this camp. It was good.
I was really just chaining together my wrestling this camp. I put a lot more hours in wrestling. Normally I just wrestled live like maybe once a week and this time I picked it up to two, which is still not a lot, but you get kind of complacent when you have a background in something, you forget to put the time in and I really put the time in this camp and it worked well in the fight.
I knew I was going to get the finish walking into this fight, but definitely when I felt her on bottom and I felt that she had a really hard time getting out of that side control, I knew if I got that position again, it was just a matter of time before I could secure that finish.
In my mind, in my heart, there is no question. I think finishing the No. 3 fighter in this division the way I did, hands down, that title fight is mine.
That’s hard to say. I don’t know if I would say it’s sweeter because when you’re fighting someone new, you feel like you get to test yourself, but honestly I feel like I’m fighting someone new if I fight Rose [Namajunas] again. We fought so long ago and she’s developed into such an even more awesome fighter and developed a lot of new skills. I’m pretty excited.
It feels like a Cinderella story. Everything that I’ve been through, the ups and downs in this division, I’ve been fighting for over eleven years… To fight my way to being the Invicta champ then going through TUF, winning that, being the champ, lose that in such a devastating manner, have a lot of highs and lows in this division and then to finally, almost seven years later, fight my way back to be in this position, it feels like a Cinderella story.
Jared Vanderaa defeated Justin Tafa via unanimous decision
Jared Vanderaa:
I felt like it won me the fight. I’m definitely going to have to watch it. I’m going to have to put my ego aside and I don’t want that curse of ‘I won, I can’t learn anything from it’. There are definitely things that I know I’m going to easily work on, that’s my wrestling and some more, because that was a standup fight. I grabbed a leg, that was the extent of my wrestling. I had a headlock and knee, but I want to make sure that in my next fight I have the ability to take him down when I need to. That’s definitely one thing I’m taking out of this fight. I want to see how my head movement was, how straight my punches looked. I knew I threw some naked kicks in there, which I’m a little ashamed of, but luckily they landed without any repercussion.
I knew he was a kickboxer, I knew he was going to have that cardio for it, so I kind of hoped to get him to the ground to see if I could wear out his cardio in the grappling section, but he is big. I couldn’t get enough grip on the leg to take him down, but again that’s something I’m going to work on so it doesn’t happen again.
I honestly think the help from the PI, from nutrition to the sports psychology and to strength and conditioning, have been a big help to me. I can’t wait to use them again in upcoming weeks and months. Even though I’m going to try to take a mental break from the sport, I’m still going to use them. I have great coaches that are going to help and work together.
I’m a workaholic. I like to fight, but I have an unborn kid coming my way. I’ve got to be a parent too, but this is my business. I’ve got to be all over the place. If I get called to fight, I’m fighting. If I’m not, it’s not a big deal. I’ve got two revenues of income that I could be home more for my fiancé and stuff like that.
Norma Dumont defeated Felicia Spencer via split decision
Norma Dumont:
It’s a win that puts me in a really good place with myself. I’m a fighter that doesn’t have many fights yet, this was just my seventh, and I’ve only faced tough opponents. In the UFC, I’ve only had tough opponents and this win puts me in a different level. I’m anxious and excited about my next steps in the UFC.
I prefer striking, but I have a really sharp jiu-jitsu game. I’ve trained jiu-jitsu for nine years, I’m a brown belt and I have a very sharp Sanda game as well, with the takedowns. If you touch me, I can take you down and if I don’t want to, I can get out of it. Felicia is a dangerous opponent in jiu-jitsu, we knew that. I couldn’t take any risk of ending up being submitted and that’s why I didn’t insist too much in the positions. I’m good in both areas and I always try to put my opponent in trouble. Wherever her flaw is, it’s where my game plan will be to beat her.
I felt she was a little desperate when she started trying to get a takedown. I saw that she didn’t have the strength to take me down, that her takedowns weren’t going to connect, so I started signaling to her that it wasn’t going to work, that her kicks weren’t going to get me, that my reflex is really good, my feint game and my legs are really agile, so I’m hard to hit. I started pointing out to her that I was seeing her moves and I saw that she was starting to get desperate, moving forward and I ended up counter striking more because I needed her to be more exposed. In a game of counter strikers, whoever breaks the other’s mind first wins the fight.
I wasn’t completely confident I had won. I knew it was a tough fight, I knew I had to push the pace and play the game. I have a tendency of upping my game in each round so even though it was a tough fight, I have this tendency of putting more pressure on the second and the third. In the end of the third, I started getting a little tired so I decided to hold the fight a little bit. I didn’t know if I was winning. I saw that I had damaged her more, she didn’t hurt me at all, but really, in there, in such a hard-fought fight, it’s hard to tell who is winning.
I do want to go down to 135lbs. Actually, I want to fight as soon as possible. We are going to sit down next week, talk about what’s next for me and decide whether I should stay in this division or not… If we do decide going to 135lbs, I know I’ll need 4 or 5 months because it’s hard work. Maybe I’ll take one more fight in this division… I’m strong for this division too so I wouldn’t have a problem with that, but, yeah, we’ll sit down, organize our thoughts and also see what UFC offers us.
Ricardo Ramos defeated Bill Algeo via unanimous decision
Ricardo Ramos:
I need to watch it again, but I felt good. I had an awesome training camp. I have a lot of things to improve as always, but I felt good and it’s a win. I need to thank all my coaches and team, I’m feeling good.
It was always in my game plan. I felt that he was a little bit better in striking than I thought, but I managed to be better and get the win. All went according to plan.
All his fights that I watched, he is a guy who is a warrior, he is always coming forward doesn’t matter where he is, and I knew he was going to be a tough opponent and it was in his element. He likes to go to the scrambles, just go at it and make the opponent get tired in this fight style. I was able to go into his area and get a win against him. It was a good one.
Looking back to my last fight, he was the perfect opponent, the Senor Perfecto, for this one, because I could prove my warrior spirit. It was perfect for me, everything was perfect. I just need to thank God first as always and all my family, all my friends and coaches that help me be here and do what I love.
I want to get any opponent. I’m ready for anyone in the next couple of weeks or months, it doesn’t matter, I’m ready. I just want to build a winning streak and keep the focus on the belt. That’s my focus, my dream and my goal, become the champion in the 145lbs division. I will not give up until I get there.
Jack Hermansson defeated Edmen Shahbazyan via unanimous decision
Jack Hermansson:
I feel good. I’m happy with my performance especially after all the adversity. I had Covid recently and coming off from a loss, it’s good to be back with a win.
It was hard to find the timing and the distance in the first round. I understood I needed to pressure a little bit more, get him to the clinch and take him down from there.
He thought of it and tried a few times, but I could see what he wanted and I could see how he wanted to better his positioning. I managed to shut that down and also deliver some offense myself.
At least I know that I’ll always have that. I’m able to dig deep when I have to. The best thing is if you fight a perfect fight, you don’t have to dig, but sometimes you need to and I know that I have that.
I think I showed them that I’m extremely good when I get to the ground and I don’t think there is anybody out there that can hang with me when I get them down. That’s probably no news for the guys, but there you go, that’s where I shine.
In this fight, I felt it was very slippery so I didn’t want to advance from the half guard. I kept the half guard for the whole third round just because that’s a better controlling positioning. I know that if I need to finish, I need to pass to mount so I tried that just in the end, but I didn’t want to make any mistakes there. But that’s it: control perfectly with the half guard and if you want to advance and finish the fight, you need to get to the better position.
COMMENTS