William Gomis vs. Jo Anderson Brito, UFC Paris Ceremonial Weigh-in Credit: UFC
After an unexpectedly intense bout, UFC featherweights William Gomis and Joan Delson Brito came to a head-to-head on Saturday at UFC Paris.
Gomis (13-2) will be fighting in his home country for the third time in his UFC career. In the UFC, he won 3 wins and 0 losses over Jarno Elens, Francis Martial, and Giannis Genmoli, and secured a date with Brito in Paris.
Brito (17-3-1) will face Gomis, who is on a five-fight win streak with wins over Andre Fili, Lucas Alexander, Westin Wilson, Jonathan Pearce and Jack Shore, and a win at UFC Paris will move him up the rankings. The entry is decided.
Brazil’s João Delson Brito started the night with an impressive finishing streak, ending a five-fight streak within the distance. Gomis has only been stopped once in his professional career by Morgan Charriere in 2016, who coincidentally won earlier in the night.
With Brito chasing Gomis from the opening bell, the French fighter wisely took the fight to the edge of the cage. So he went for a takedown, but it was Brito who controlled it and got the takedown. That didn’t last long either, with Brito quickly losing position and allowing Gomis to take the lead. Gomis worked from the inside guard and spent a lot of time up top until Brito finally broke through the moment the opponent tried to pass guard.
Most of the rest of the round was played on the feet, with Brito leading the action, with Gomis taking a few wild swings in reaction late before the final takedown.
Brito clinches with Gomis and scores a takedown about 30 seconds into the second round. With Brito in side control, Gomis was trapped lying parallel to the fence. After landing a few knees to the body, the Brazilian tried to get back and was in half guard in a three-quarter position. This allowed Brito to land an arm triangle choke, but he couldn’t do it. Instead, Brito readjusted and Gomis initially gave the referee a thumbs up.
Brito held that position for a while, then got back on his feet and walked down Gomis. Gomis finished with his back to the cage with just over a minute remaining. Brito once again made it through, but would ultimately advance to round three.
Brito took over the stand-up early in the third, using a combination of hands and kicks. He moved forward, Gomis counterattacked, and in about 90 seconds the French fighters caught up. That slowed them down, but they couldn’t stay there for long. Gomis ended up firing a front kick and another to the body as Brito took the role of attacker again. They would eventually clinch again and Brito would take control from behind, firing knees and trying to drag Gomis down. As time went on, Brito was in danger of losing his winning streak, but was never in danger of actually losing a match. It looked like Brito would go into the third round with a comfortable two-round lead, but somehow Gomis won by split decision. Online opinion was decidedly in Brito’s favor, given the two 29-28 scores given to William Gomis.
Official result: William Gomis def. Joan Delson Brito, split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
