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Nathaniel Wood continued to quietly climb the UFC featherweight rankings, while Daniel Pineda kept things entertaining as usual.
“The Prospect” entered Saturday’s top prelims bout at UFC 304 in Manchester, England, as the overwhelming 4-1 favorite to win, and he fought that way for at least a few minutes. Wood (20-6 MMA, 8-3 UFC) started strong, landing a front kick to the body of Pineda (28-16 MMA, 3 NC; 5-7 UFC, 1 NC) that snapped him in half. “The Pit” caught Wood in his guard as he pounced for the finish, buying him time to recover. Pineda fought back well from the near-finish, sweeping Wood and landing some hard ground shots near the end of the round. Wood earned his shot again in the second round, hurting Pineda with pinpoint punches that left him blinking and clawing his right eye.Pineda again showed veteran wit and toughness as he tried to weather the storm and recover, but Wood was relentless, trying to shut him down with a series of brutal calf kicks. Pineda once again survived and bought time for a takedown attempt, but that only delayed the inevitable. Back to his feet, Wood went on the offensive, and every blow he landed seemed to hurt Pineda. At the end of the round, Wood had the upper hand in Pineda’s full guard, and the two traded punches and elbows. UFC 304: Edwards vs. Muhammad, Saturday at 10pm ET on ESPN+. Order now! The cageside doctor carefully examined Pineda’s right eye before allowing the third round to continue, but Pineda made the most of the momentary reprieve, quickly taking down Wood, perhaps trying to keep Wood’s shin and face out of firing range for a while. Wood got away with some quick sweeps and Pineda stuck to his man, taking the fight to the ground and looking to win by submission, but Wood was tenacious, defended himself well and was never in real danger of being finished despite ceding position to his desperate opponent. The judges correctly scored the fight 29-27, 29-27, 29-28 in favor of Wood, bouncing back from a loss to Mohammedjon Naimov last October. It was Pineda’s second straight loss and he is now 2-3 with one no-contest since returning to UFC four years ago.
Brazil defeats McCann with bodywork
Bruna Brasil provided a major disruption in her strawweight preliminaries when she took down heavy-stakes favorite and local heroine Molly McCann. For a moment, it looked like the bout would make it past the first round, but Brasil (9-4-1, 2-2 UFC) opted to avoid the chin attack that helped earn McCann (14-7, 7-6 UFC) the nickname “Meatball,” instead attacking the body with a series of kicks and knees that left the Liverpudlian staggered and on the defensive. McCann recovered to fight to the end of the round, with perhaps her best round coming in the middle frame, when she switched to her underrated ground game. McCann took Brasil down with a powerful slam, and both fighters returned to the stands almost immediately, but the takedown itself was the round’s most striking offensive moment. In the final seconds of the bout, Brasil took down the off-balance “Meatball” with a punch off a whiffed low kick. The final round was a back-and-forth affair, with both fighters landing takedowns and some stand-up success, but Brazil remained the more effective woman in all phases. The judges awarded Brazil the victory by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28), bouncing back from a loss to Kongkrak Suphisara earlier this year. McCann’s loss leaves them both tied at 1-1 since dropping down from flyweight to strawweight.
Heavy Hadley chases Loughran away
Jake Hadley made the most of a sudden opportunity, defeating Caolan Laffran in a catchweight bout at 137 pounds. Hadley (11-3), who took on the bout a week ago after Ramon Taveras withdrew, had moved up from his usual flyweight division to bantamweight, but he wasn’t up to the task and was forced to compete at a catchweight. Once the cage door closed, however, “White Kong” was in top form, outmaneuvering his shorter, stockier opponent with jabs and kicks, and fending off most of the Irishman’s takedown attempts. Laffran was limited to single punches that missed short and takedown attempts that led to clinches with him against the fence. Hadley kept his distance as the bout progressed, spending most of the third round skipping away from Laffran while picking off and fending off his opponent’s lunges. The judges scored the bout in favor of Hadley (30-27, 30-27, 29-28), improving her record with UFC to 3-3, while Loughran’s loss dropped her to 1-2 with the promotion.
Mokaev remains unbeaten in bizarre fight
While multiple pre-fight altercations between Mohamed Mokaev and Manel Kape hinted at the spectacle of this matchup between the flyweight contenders, the actual bout ended up being far from exciting. In contrast to the obvious hostility between the two fighters, which had security separating them during fight week and even in the cage before the bout, the first round was tense and hesitant, with Mokaev only managing to land one front kick from long range and Kape barely attempting any offense until the final minute, when he landed two heavy punches that may have been enough to win the round. The second round was marked by aggression, but was a bizarre five minutes in itself. Kape injured his right big toe early in the round but managed to continue, but an enraged referee, Mike Beltran, blatantly grabbed Kape’s trunks, allowing Mokaev to be taken down and placed on top. The final round was the most conventional of the three, with Kape fighting well given the obvious damage to his right leg, but there was little suspense when the judges’ scores were read out, confirming “The Punisher” with a unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28). With the win, Mokaev (13-1, 1 no-kick) improves to 7-0 in the UFC, but it remains to be seen whether he will impress UFC matchmakers enough to overtake the likes of Steve Erceg or Kai Kara-France, who he will face in another flyweight contenders showdown next month. Kape (19-7) falls to 4-3 in the UFC with the loss.
Elliott rolls and scuffles past Parsons.
Oban Elliott (11-2) and Preston Parsons (11-5) entertained the British crowd with a strategic, tense three-round welterweight bout that felt more intense than the final score would suggest. The first two rounds were closely fought, with Elliott fending off repeated takedown attempts from Parsons and landing clean jabs and one-twos, while Parsons damaged the Welshman’s lead leg with powerful low kicks and scored with short punches and elbows in the clinch. Patterson finally scored a solid takedown in the third round, but was soon forced to defend against an armbar attempt before Elliott got to his feet in time for the final horn. The judges scored the win by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) in favor of “The Welsh Gangster,” improving Parsons to 2-0 since joining UFC on Dana White’s Contender Series last year. Parsons’ record in the Octagon is now 2-3.
Bukauskas Arm Triangle Prachnio
Modestas Bukauskas (16-6) tapped out Marcin Prachnio (17-8) to close out a fierce light heavyweight brawl and pick up a much-needed victory. Prachnio gained the early advantage with a flurry of powerful low kicks and clumsy hooks, but Bukauskas was the cleaner puncher and gained momentum late in the first round as Prachnio appeared to start to tire. Prachnio fought back hard, landing a close-range head kick on Bukauskas in a fierce exchange, but Bukauskas easily scored a takedown to thwart the counterattack, then recovered to survive the round. The third round began with Prachnio landing clean punches amid another brawl. He was firing bullets at the finish, driving Bukauskas to the other side of the cage with some hard punches, but Bukauskas made it through by dragging Prachnio to the canvas again and taking top position, chipping away with short punches and elbow strikes. Prachnio didn’t try to escape or improve his position, but rather than take the easy way out and run out the clock, Bukauskas went for an arm-triangle choke. “The Baltic Gladiator” tightened up, and despite being in half guard on the wrong side for the finish, he drew the tap from a tired and overpowered Prachnio at 3 minutes and 12 seconds. The win marked Bukauskas’ first submission victory at UFC, and improved his record with the promotion to 4-4. Prachnio fell to 4-6 at UFC.
Patterson strangled Crosby
Sam Patterson made a seamless transition from a ridiculously tall lightweight to a ridiculously tall welterweight, defeating Kieffer Crosby with ease, finishing the bout with an arm triangle choke. Patterson (13-2-1, 2-1 UFC) quickly demonstrated his dominance in the stand-up, landing a long uppercut that rocked Crosby (10-5, 0-2 UFC). From there, Patterson pushed the Irishman to the floor, landed in full mount and quickly closed out the arm triangle. Patterson jumped into side control and nearly scored the finish, but was forced to return to mount, adjust his grip and try again. This time the tap came within seconds, with referee Lukas Bosacki coming to the rescue at 2:50 of the first round. The swift finish was the 6-foot-4 Briton’s second consecutive UFC win and his first since moving up from 155 pounds following a submission win over Johan Lainez in January.
Perkin Pummel’s Brezki
Michael Parkin (10-0) kept his professional record clean and thrilled the Manchester crowd. In the first round of the heavyweight undercard, he pounded Lukasz Brzeski (9-5-1, 1 no kick) with punches. Brzeski had the right idea, using kicks and footwork to try to put the much heavier Englishman out of boxing range. But Parkin dodged Brzeski’s punches, dodged a clean kick to the head without ill effect, and landed a powerful punch in the pocket. Parkin caught the Pole with a flashy right hook and, as Brzeski stumbled toward the fence, he pursued him with heavy punches with both hands. After five or six punches went unreturned, referee Mark Goddard stepped in to save Brzeski, who was leaning against the cage. The win came at 3 minutes and 23 seconds of the first round, improving Parkin to 4-0 in the Octagon and securing him a place in the Top 15 in the UFC heavyweight division, while Breszczyk dropped to 1-4 in UFC competition.
Bannon defeats Alderian
In the opening bout, Shauna Bannon (6-1) held off a fierce charge from substitute Alice Ardelian (8-6) to win a split decision in their strawweight bout. Ardelian, who filled in two weeks before for Bannon’s original opponent, Ravena Oliveira, took down the Irish kickboxer (despite a blatant fence grab) and had some success early on as Bannon worked her way from the bottom to try for armbars and triangle chokes. Bannon’s submission attempts arguably outweighed Ardelian’s sporadic ground strikes in the first two rounds, but both fighters were close going into the final round. From there, however, “Mama B” took the lead, and Ardelian began to fade, perhaps due to the effects of the shortened camp. Bannon won the day by scores of 30-27, 29-28, 28-29 to improve to 1-1 in her UFC record. Meanwhile, Ardelean went 0-1 with the promotion.
