By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch Senior Columnist
UFC Fight Night: Dern vs. Ribas 2 was this past weekend and it
featured some exciting fights and finishes. Who won and who lost?
Let’s get to the rundown.
UFC Fight Night: Dern vs. Ribas 2
GOOD- Punahele Soriano stops Uros Medic
They start off trading a few strikes before Soriano blasts Medic with
a huge right hand that drops him. Some follow-up punches force the referee to jump in to stop the fight thirty seconds into the first round.
Soriano improves to 11-4 while Medic drops to 10-3. Good win for Soriano.
GOOD- Christian Rodriguez vs. Austin Bashi
They trade a few strikes early before Bashi gets stuffed on a takedown
attempt. He keeps trying so Rodriguez takes him down for a moment and
almost submits him. They trade more strikes and takedown attempts before the first round ends. The second round begins with Bashi getting a takedown but Rodriguez is immediately back to his feet.
They’re back up and down a few times and grapple the rest of the second round, with the occasional strike thrown in. The third round
starts with more of the same and continues that way so the fight ends
and we go to the judges to render their verdict.
Rodriguez wins the decision to improve to 12-2 while Bashi drops to 13-1 and is handed his first professional loss. Good win for Rodriguez.
UGLY/GOOD- Roman Kopylov stops Chris Curtis
Curtis starts with jabs while Kopylov begins with body kicks before mixing in some punches as well. Both fighters are blasting the other
with power strikes all throughout this first round. The second round begins with more striking exchanges. Curtis cuts Kopylov above the
right eye with a big left hand and also bloodies his nose. Kopylov
kicks Curtis low then pokes him in the eye. Come on, man. Curtis is
taking damage in order to inflict damage and it’s working fairly well
for him as the second round ends. The third round starts with both fighters throwing more bombs. Kopylov gets warned again for
outstretched fingers and honestly, I wish he was disqualified and Curtis was given a TKO win. I’m so sick of the outstretched fingers garbage. The fight ends when Kopylov nails Curtis with a head kick
that stumbles and drops him with seconds to go in the fight. Kopylov
walks off and the referee calls a stop to the fight with one second to
go, even though he was staggering around.
Ridiculous refereeing there. First, the outstretched fingers junk that
should have warranted at least one point deduction for Kopylov then
there’s this. Kopylov should have been deducted a minimum of two points and this fight shouldn’t have been stopped, which means that
Curtis should have won the decision. This was absurd, absolutely absurd.
Kopylov improves to 14-3 while Curtis drops to 31-12 with 1 No
Contest. Complete BS win for Kopylov.
GOOD- Cesar Almeida stops Abdul Razak Alhassan
Almeida throws a few kicks to start while Alhassan favors punches before trying for a takedown. These guys are swinging for the fences when Alhassan crushes Almeida with a huge right hand that drops him.
Alhassan jumps on him but can’t finish Almeida, who actually recovers enough to smash Alhassan with a perfect left hand that ends the fight
a bit over four minutes into the first round. Alhassan drops
lifelessly to the mat and scarily hits his head. He’s down for a long time and all thoughts and hopes go to him making a full recovery. This
is stuff you never want to see.
Almeida improves to 7-1 while Alhassan drops to 12-7 with 1 No Contest. Good win for Almeida.
GOOD- Santiago Ponzinibbio stops Carlston Harris
They start off trading strikes before Harris tries for a takedown a
few times. Harris drops Ponzinibbio a few times and he’s cut on the back of his head as the first round ends. The second round begins with
more of the same, plenty of strikes flying from all angles. Harris drops Ponzinibbio again and both fighters are taking a lot of abuse as
the second round ends. The third round starts with Harris trying for
another takedown but he can’t get it. More bombs are being landed and
both men are showing tremendous toughness in absorbing and continuing
to fight. The fight ends weirdly when Ponzinibbio drops Harris, who
gets up and keeps swinging away, then Harris is dropped to a knee and
the referee is about to jump in but doesn’t. Then the fighters start trading again and the referee chooses that time to jump in to stop the
fight a bit over three minutes into the third round.
What in the world is going on with the referees tonight? I don’t understand it. Harris likely would have been finished anyway but he
was throwing punches so that’s a very odd time to stop the fight.
Ponzinibbio improves to 30-8 while Harris drops to 19-7. Good win for Ponzinibbio.
GOOD- Mackenzie Dern submits Amanda Ribas
They’re both throwing kicks early, with the occasional punch to mix it up. This continues until Dern gets a takedown and works a little
ground-and-pound shortly before the first round ends. The second round
begins with more kicking until Ribas gets the fight to the mat. Dern attacks with elbows off of her back and they spend the rest of the
second round grappling and trying to get free of the other. The third
round starts with more kicks flying. They fight in close and trade knees until Ribas gets a trip takedown. They’re both grinding away
until Dern grabs an armbar and it’s too tight, Ribas has to tap with four second left in the third round.
Dern improves to 15-5 while Ribas drops to 13-6. Good win for Dern.
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Comments and suggestions can be emailed to me at
hydenfrank@gmail.com and you can follow me on Twitter at @hydenfrank.
Thanks for reading and have a good day.
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