Sanabul Fight News: UFC Long Island
UFC Fans are thrilled for regular fight nights to be popping up more and more with fans in attendance, including UFC: Long Island headlines by Yair Rodriguez and Brian Ortega, as well as UFC London 2 next weekend.
Two exciting matchups on the prelims were Dustin Jacoby and Bill Algeo both getting dominant wins/finishes on their opponents to start off UFC Long islands on Saturday night. Dustin Jacoby and Jung Da Un were having a relatively even striking affair with exactly even numbers in significant strikes, and former GLORY kickboxing champion, Jacoby, ended up landing a huge right hand to get the walk-off KO and moving himself to 6-0-1 in the UFC after his return via DWCS. Bill Algeo ended up finishing Herbert Burns in the second round after starting off rocky, but moved his record up to 16-6 nevertheless with a great finish via TKO as Herbert couldn’t stand up after a barrage of heavy blows.
Ricky Simon and Punahele Soriano finished off the prelims with two amazing finishes of their own, with both solidifying themselves as very dangerous members of their respective weight classes. Punahele ended up finishing Dalcha Lungiambula in the second round with a perfect counter off of Dalcha’s kick, and knocked him down with a couple strong punches, finishing with a couple shots on the ground. Puna has had some ups and downs in the division so far but he is looking like he might be going for a nice run here for the title if he keeps up strong performances like that.
Ricky Simon might be making a second surge through the division as well, finishing 16-0 Jack Shore as an underdog in the second round. Ricky knocked Jack down with some strong strikes, mounted him and transitioned into an arm-triangle to move himself up to 20-3, with his 5th consecutive win, and likely top 10 in the bantamweight division.
Lauren Murphy and Shane Burgos started off the main card strong with two decision wins over some very strong opponents. Lauren Murphy faced off against Miesha Tate in Tate’s Flyweight debut, the fight was a striking battle going back and forth with Lauren Murphy able to pull through with two judges giving her the 30-27 decision in the end. Burgos and Charles Jourdain had a really technical fight, with Shane showing off his advanced grappling skills and taking Charles back for almost half of the fight. This win moves Shane Burgos up to 15-3 as a professional and pushes him further through the rankings in the featherweight division.
Matt Schnell, Li Jingliang, and Amanda Lemos closed off the main card (apart from the main event) in exciting fashion. Matt Schnell and Sumudaerji had an absolute barn burner with Schnell coming back in the second round after being dominated, dropped, and almost finished multiple times, finishing Sumudaerji with a triangle choke that put him right to sleep. Li Jingliang was going into this matchup as a relatively big underdog coming off of a loss to Khamzhat Chimaev, the first round was quite close, with Li Jingliang coming out hard in the second and dropping Muslim Salikhov to get the second round finish and move up to 11-5 in the UFC. Amanda Lemos proved herself once again as a huge contender in the division, finishing Michelle Waterson with a guillotine choke in the second round to move herself to 6-1 in the UFC at strawweight.
Yair Rodriguez and Brian Ortega sadly did not pay off as the main event many were expecting, with Yair coming out quickly with some striking, the fight hit the ground where Yair started to lock up an armbar with Brian’s shoulder dislocating due to an extremely unexpected and unlucky accident that ended the bout with Yair winning due to a first round TKO/KO. Hopefully we get to see these men run this one back, but there is a possibility that Yair will be moved on to a title eliminator or title fight next.