LAS VEGAS, NV – JULY 19: (L-R) Luana Carolina of Brazil and Lucie Pudilova of the Czech Republic compete during the UFC Fight Night weigh-ins at UFC APEX on July 19, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
Luana Carolina dominated Lucie Pudilova in the second bout of the night at UFC Las Vegas 94, winning by decision.
Carolina came into this bout in the best form of her UFC career, having won two consecutive bouts by dominant force, one by finish, and with a 5-3 record in the promotion, she faces Czech Republic’s Pudilova. Rousey is 1-2 in her second UFC bout, but many consider her decision win over Jocelyn Edwards two bouts ago to be a fair one. Either way, she knew a loss to her Brazilian opponent would put her at risk of losing her job, but that wasn’t an issue for Carolina.
At the start of the bout, Carolina was flying around the ring at first with Pudilova chasing her, but as the rounds progressed, Luana started to hold back on her punches. Midway through the round, Luana’s face was red. She tried to clinch and wrestle, but Carolina defended, and on the break, she cut her opponent’s eye with an elbow. Luana then clinched herself but couldn’t get a takedown, but still hurt Pudilova with dirty boxing and another elbow. However, the Czech fighter scored a takedown in the last five seconds and ended the round with the advantage.
Carolina controlled the distance with kicks and hurt Pudilova with punches at the start of the second round. However, Rousey landed a good left after a minute, and Luana clinched and landed more slicing elbows on the break. Carolina won the rest of the round with strikes, attacking with her Muay Thai clinching skills in each clinch. Pudilova tried to go for a takedown late in the round, but was blocked, but was able to land some hard elbows. In the end, it was Pudilova’s best round.
Round 3 was more of the same. Carolina dominated Pudilova throughout the round and relied more on kicks in this round, which Pudilova had no way of countering. Pudilova fought to the end, coming forward aggressively and trying to find counters with both wrestling and striking, but there was nothing. Even getting a takedown with a minute left wasn’t enough. She couldn’t do much damage from above, whereas Luana had been doing it for the entire previous four minutes.
When the judges’ scores were read out, there were no surprises: all three judges scored the fight in Carolina’s favor, with one of them scoring all three rounds in her favor.
Official result: Luana Carolina defeats Lucie Pudilova by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
