Cesar Almeida and Hihor Potieria, UFC 307 ceremonial weigh-in Credit: Dylan Napoleone/Cageside Press
Middleweights Cesar Almeida and Ihor Potieria faced off on the preliminary card of UFC 307 on Saturday night in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Almeida, a former GLORY kickboxer, has a 1-1 record in the UFC, including a loss to Roman Kopylov. Potieria is 2-3 in his last five fights, starting with a loss to Michel “Demolidore” Pereira.
The first round started with a technical kickboxing battle. Potieria had some success with body attacks early in his fight with Almeida, opening up some nice left hands. Almeida used kicks in the first round and had a lot of success against Potieria. Potieria mixed in some grappling and got a takedown after a few tries. But Almeida showed he has been working on that part of his game after his last fight against Kopylov.
The start of the second round was not the best. Almeida poked Potieria, but the referee overruled it, and moments later Almeida followed up the foul with a shot to the groin. Immediately afterwards, Almeida appeared to have hit Potieria again with no deductions. The fight resumed, inexplicably followed by a third eye thrust, which was not called. Potieria went back for a grapple, but Almeida was able to get back up and do a grapple with him firmly secured in the guillotine. He was able to use it to mount in the potty area and land some nasty ground and pound from top position.
Most people didn’t expect the middleweight pair to make it to round three, but they did. The third round started with another eye poke that the referee didn’t care about. The ultimate finger thrusting championship was in full swing. Both fighters were extremely tired throughout this final round, which was to be expected at the heights of Salt Lake City. In the end, Almeida won with a kickbox and was able to counter Potieria’s grappling attack. Despite being stabbed in the eye about five times and shot in the groin, Almeida achieved what he is known for in kickboxing.
Almeida currently has 2 wins and 1 loss in the UFC, and can be expected to use this victory as a springboard for growth. He improved a lot compared to the last game and he made a lot of improvements heading into this game where it showed. This was a big win for his MMA career at UFC 307.
Official result: Cesar Almeida def. Ihor Potieria unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
