Carly Giudice and Gabriella Fernandez at the UFC Las Vegas 93 weigh-in. Credit: Youtube/UFC
Carly Giudice made her Octagon debut on Saturday at UFC Las Vegas 93, facing Gabriela Fernandez under highly unusual circumstances.
Giudice has only four pro fights under her belt, losing her final bout in the Contender Series, but impressed enough to earn a UFC contract, while Fernandez has losses to Jasmine Yasdavičius and Teresa Breda, leaving the LFA veteran looking to claim her first UFC win.
Early in the match, Giudice opened the fight with a kick to the body, and Fernandez responded with a left cross. Fernandez landed some hard punches. Early on, Giudice’s face was already showing signs of damage. Fernandez caught a kick, pushed Giudice against the cage, and landed a hard left punch. Fernandez was very aggressive early in the round. As time went on, Giudice started to turn the tide and Fernandez started to fade quickly. It was Giudice who got back on track at the end of the round. In the final seconds, Fernandez went for a takedown. Although the takedown was not successful, he landed a hard right punch to close out the round.
In the second round, Fernandez came out strong, chasing Giudice around the cage. She landed ferocious punches on Giudice. Giudice was definitely in danger, but was eventually lucky enough to get poked in the eye and the bout was stopped. When the bout resumed, Fernandez was back on fire and landing hard punches. Giudice quickly got a takedown, but Fernandez quickly got back up. Fernandez was tiring, but still coming forward. Giudice went for another takedown, but she was also tiring and couldn’t keep Fernandez on the ground. Fernandez had a bit of control the second of the round, pushing against the cage and trying for a takedown. In the last 10 seconds, Giudice was able to get a takedown, but couldn’t do any damage to knock her down.
Going into the third round, Fernandez was probably leading by two rounds but was tiring badly. As in the first and second rounds, Fernandez was aggressive and landed big hooks. Giudice landed more technical shots but they didn’t make much of an impact. Giudice was the fresher fighter, landing combinations and attacking the body very well. Fernandez’s body language looked wild and ready to go down. Giudice also reacted poorly when Fernandez landed punches. She spun around with punches which didn’t look good for the judges.
As expected, it was a close fight, with both judges finding Fernandez the winner, achieving his first UFC victory.
Official result: Gabriela Fernandez defeats Carli Giudice via split decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
