UFC 295 LIVE: Hyped Aussie's winning run continues; 'animal ...

12 Nov 2023

Fox Sports

Australian Steve Erceg has continued his rise up the UFC’s flyweight division, defeating a tricky Alessandro Costa to extend his MMA winning streak to 10 fights.

Alex Pereira - Figure 1 — Photo Fox Sports

Erceg had five first-round finishes to his name before Sunday’s fight at UFC 295 but had his patience tested against the plucky Costa, who took the bout on short notice.

In the end, Erceg was crowned the winner by unanimous decision (29-28 x3), backing up his impressive upset win over David Dvorak back in June.

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Erceg had the best moment of the opening round as a big right hand hurt Costa, with the Australian immediately looking to capitalise as he shot for the rear-naked choke.

“Look how smooth that spin to mount was... sensational... a work of art,” Joe Rogan said.

Costa was able to survive even as Erceg tried to take the back, although it was still the Australian who finished the round the better of the two heading into the second.

That started to change though as Costa got through with a few brutal right hands that had Erceg backing up before later scoring a takedown on his fourth attempt.

For the most part Erceg’s patience and composure in picking his moments to attack seemingly set him up well against the more aggressive Costa, who was having success but also had to be careful not to leave himself open to the counter-attack.

To his credit, Costa was able to do that well by maintaining the high arm guard he had in the first and it was causing problems for Erceg.

Costa’s aggression also saw him finish the second in emphatic fashion with a combination that hurt Erceg once more.

Costa’s aggression did eventually backfire though as he shot for an armbar late in the round and instead ended up on his back, with Erceg finishing the round on top in mount.

Still, for the most part, Costa had the better moments of the two in the second round, leaving the third and final round to decide who would have their arm raised.

There were no more fireworks though, with Erceg the ultimate professional as he controlled things well in the third while Costa likely came to rue a few missed opportunities.

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The fight between Erceg and Costa was the final one on the preliminary card before attention turns towards the two title fights on the pay-per-view main card.

Headlining the action is a fight between former UFC light heavyweight champion and No. 1 ranked contender Jiri Prochazka and former middleweight title-holder and No. 3 Alex Pereira.

The pair will be facing off for the vacant light heavyweight title while the co-main event pits No. 2 contender Sergei Pavlovich against No. 4 Tom Aspinall for the interim heavyweight championship.

Pavlovich already holds the record for the longest UFC first-round knockout win streak (six) in the modern era.

Aspinall though has 12 first-round finishes of his own, meaning there is likely to be plenty of fireworks early in that clash of two heavyweight gladiators.

Earlier in the main card, former strawweight champion and current No. 5 ranked contender Jessica Andrade faces No. 7 Mackenzie Dern.

‘THAT DUDE IS AN ANIMAL’: DIEGO LOPES SCORES EPIC FIRST-ROUND KO

Diego Lopes made an epic statement against fellow rising contender Pat Sabatini in the pair’s featherweight bout, scoring a first-round TKO victory.

Sabatini landed a right hand early in the fight and then shot for the takedown but was unsuccessful with Lopes responding in emphatic fashion as he dropped his rival before following it up immediately with a series of brutal punches.

It saw the referee jump in after just 90 seconds as Lopes scored a second first-round finish in three UFC fights.

“He’s a predator man. That dude is an animal,” Joe Rogan said in commentary.

Lopes in August submitted Gavin Tucker in the first round, backing up an impressive showing in his UFC debut when he pushed Movsar Evloev in a unanimous decision defeat on short notice.

The highlights kept coming as Benoît Saint-Denis dropped Matt Frevola with a pinpoint head kick in the first round of their lightweight clash.

It was the Frenchman’s sixth first-round finish of his career and left Daniel Cormier stunned.

“Absolutely [my jaw was dropped],” Cormier said.

“You know what part of it is. It’s a literal rush or panic to get away from the pressure. That’s why Matt Frevola was almost running away from him, because he could not find a way to release that pressure.

“So he got a bit desperate to get away and by trying to run away, Saint Denis set him up. Beautiful head kick.”

Speaking after the fight, Saint-Denis said he would likely a shot at either Dustin Poirier, Justin Gaethje, or Mateusz Gamrot next.

BLOODY BATTLE KICKS OFF PRELIMINARY CARD

Viacheslav Borschev staged an incredible comeback to push Nazim Sadykhov the distance in an epic bout to open the UFC 295 preliminary card, with the fight finishing a majority draw (29-28, 28-28 x2).

Borschev put on a clinic in what was an action-packed first round, out-striking Sadykhov 52-20 while finding particular success mixing in brutal leg kicks.

Sadykhov though was doing well to eat up the shots, including a brutal left hook that Borschev got through midway into the first round.

It looked like Borschev had everything under control – that was until everything suddenly flipped in the second round as hook upstairs and then high kick sent him crashing to the canvas and gave Sadykhov his moment to seize the fight.

Nazim Sadykhov had control on the ground.Source: FOX SPORTS

Sadykhov immediately went to the ground and pound but was unable to find the finish and with time Borschev was able to start to recover, although there was still a window of opportunity for Sadykhov.

“He should have just let him back to his feet, he can barely stand,” Daniel Cormier said in commentary.

Even as Borschev got back to his feet he was still clearly not 100 per cent, with Sadykhov able to score a late takedown but his bloodied rival was somehow able to survive until the bell.

Cormier described it as an “unbelievable” round from Sadykhov, although in a way it also would have felt like a missed opportunity given how close Borschev looked to being finished.

That though was a credit to Borschev’s toughness as he not only survived but stepped it up in the third round.

Sadykhov was able to score a pair of takedowns in the third but Borschev did more of the damage, landing 49 significant strikes to 26.

In the end there was nothing to separate the two with the fight deemed a majority draw.

WINNING WAYS CONTINUE FOR REBECKI

Elsewhere, it was a dominant win for Mateusz Rebecki as he extended his win streak to 16 with a submission victory over Roosevelt Roberts in the first round.

Rebecki quickly took the fight to the ground after out-striking his rival early and while Roberts was able to escape at first he then found himself back down again and in even more trouble.

Rebecki was then able to take control of the back and end the fight with an armbar submission for his 10th first-round finish in his career. Roberts had taken the fight on late notice.

FULL CARD + RESULTS

Main Card (2pm AEDT, PPV)

Light Heavyweight: Jiří Procházka vs. Alex Pereira for the UFC light heavyweight title

Heavyweight: Sergei Pavlovich vs. Tom Aspinall for the UFC interim heavyweight title

Women’s Strawweight: Mackenzie Dern vs. Jéssica Andrade

Lightweight: Benoît Saint-Denis def. Matt Frevola via first-round TKO

Featherweight: Diego Lopes def. Pat Sabatini via first-round TKO

Preliminary card (12pm AEDT on ESPN)

Flyweight: Steve Erceg def. Alessandro Costa via UD (29-28 x3)

Women’s Strawweight: Loopy Godinez (29-28 x2) def. Tabatha Ricci (30-27) via split decision

Lightweight: Mateusz Rębecki def. Roosevelt Roberts via first-round submission (armbar)

Lightweight: Nazim Sadykhov and Viacheslav Borshchev fight out a majority draw (29-28, 28-28 x2)