Josh Quinlan and Adam Fugit at the UFC Las Vegas 93 weigh-in. Credit: Youtube/UFC
Welterweights Josh Quinlan and Adam Fugitt opened the main card of UFC Vegas 93 on Saturday at the APEX in Las Vegas.
Quinlan was looking for his second win with the organization but has lost two straight and Saturday will be key to his continued promotional career. Fugitt is also 1-2 at UFC and enters the bout after a loss to Mike Marotte at UFC 289 last year.
The bout began with both fighters gauging each other’s strengths, with Fugit landing a back kick to his opponent’s body. A minute or so into the bout, Quinlan landed a superman punch while Fugit continued to go for kicks with varying success. In the middle of the round, both fighters still seemed cautious, landing only a few strikes at a time. Adam was landing a ton of strikes, drawing his opponent’s attention with each one Fugit landed. With just a few seconds left in the round, both fighters began to go on the offensive, landing more strikes and landing more hits.
At the start of the second round, Quinlan landed a leg kick and Fugitt returned with multiple kicks at all levels. Nearly a minute into the round, Adam went for a body lock, but Josh quickly dodged it. Quinlan finally found the space to strike, landing one punch to the top and two kicks to the body and leg. Quinlan also deftly dodged a high kick from Fugitt and dodged a double leg takedown with a sprawl. Adam was again landing more punches and more kicks, but with each hit Quinlan was drawing his opponent’s attention.
At the start of the final round, Fugitt resumed his attack with increased volume, mixing punches and kicks. Quinlan increased his movement and intensity, but continued to land single-shots, jumping out of range as quickly as he came in. At the midpoint of the round, Fugitt was landing multiple kicks to Quinlan’s arms and body, but his opponent was still charging in to land power punches. Near the end of the bout, Quinlan was able to answer every kick Fugitt was throwing with a few big punches.
The closely fought bout was decided by a narrow margin, with two judges scoring the bout in favor of Adam Fugitt and the opposing judge scoring it 29-28 in favor of Quinlan.
Official result: Adam Fugitt defeats Josh Quinlan via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
