UFC Fight Night 24 pitted Antonio Rogerio Nogueria against American Phil Davis at light heavyweight in the main event in Seattle this past weekend.
Nogueria has the same first name as his twin brother who fights in the UFC at heavyweight, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria.
Nogueria is a former Pride fighter who came into the UFC at UFC 106 back in November 2009 knocking out Jason Brilz and was also awarded Fight of the Night. He has had four fights in the Octagon losing his last to Ryan Bader on points, last September at UFC 119 in Indianapolis. His standup is very good, having won championships in amateur boxing.
Davis pounds into Nogueria
Davis was undefeated and debuted in the Octagon at UFC 109 in February of last year. He had a busy schedule winning four fights, his last being in November 2010 at UFC 123 where he beat Tim Boetsch by submission getting Submission of the Night as well. He comes from a wrestling background having competed in college.
Both fighters have solid Jiu Jitsu so it should have been an interesting fight to see where each decided to take the fight. On their feet Nogueria is probably the favourite whereas the ground work would favour Davis but anything can happen.
Back on their feet Nogueria landed the superior punches but Davis was still controlling the fight and doing the right thing by looking for takedowns to keep Nogueria on his back and unfortunately for Nogueria he couldn't stay up long enough to show his skills.
Wayne McCullough
Quotes of the week
The fight started on their feet. Davis landed some kicks as Nogueria was trying to land his overhand left. He was successful a few times but Davis took them well. He looked for several takedowns but didn't get any as Nogueria was defending against them. The first round was close but Davis should have edged it.
Davis got smart in the second round and switched his double leg takedowns to a single. Nogueria got wrist control while on his back although he couldn't do anything to keep the better wrestler off. Back on their feet Nogueria landed the superior punches but Davis was still controlling the fight and doing the right thing by looking for takedowns to keep Nogueria on his back and unfortunately for Nogueria he couldn't stay up long enough to show his skills.
In the third round Davis, "Mr Wonderful", was up by two on my card so Nogueria needed something special if he was going to win. He tried to land his left again but Davis got another single leg takedown and did some ground and pound damage. Nogueria used his feet to keep Davis from maintaining position but wasn't really taking any chances to win. He got back up to his feet but with about two minutes to go Davis took him down again, punching his body and kept him there until the end of the fight.
Davis was awarded the win on scores of 30-27 by all three judges.
On the undercard Britain's Dan Hardy lost a unanimous decision to Anthony Johnson. This was Hardy's third loss. Johnson kept Hardy on his back for most of the fight and he had no answers for Johnson's better wrestling skills.
Also John Hathaway got back to winning ways when he won a split decision over Kris McCray in a hard fought bout.
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