UFC 292 took place last night at the TD Garden in Boston. “Suga” Sean O’Malley dethroned Aljamain Sterling as Bantamweight champion with a second round TKO in the main event. In the co-main event Zhang Weili defended her Strawweight belt with a dominant decision victory over Amanda Lemos.
Sean O’Malley Becomes Bantamweight Champion With Second Round TKO of Aljamain Sterling
Sean O’Malley is the real deal. O’Malley landed a beautiful right-hand counter that dropped Aljamain Sterling early in the second round, leading to a TKO finish to secure the UFC Bantamweight belt.
Early in the first round, Sterling looked to attack with leg kicks, but O’Malley used excellent footwork and proved to be a difficult target to reach. With Sterling pressuring, O’Malley landed several long-range front kicks to the body.
Later in the round, Sterling landed several hard inside leg kicks. Sterling shot for a single leg takedown with twenty seconds left in the round, but O’Malley defended well. Sterling held onto the leg with O’Malley up against the fence and landed some right hands from the position but didn’t appear to do any damage.
The first round was difficult to score as neither fighter threw many strikes as both fighters showed a lot of respect.
Sterling opened the second round with heavy pressure as he threw two body kicks. O’Malley then threw a front kick that missed and fell to the ground. Sterling tried to capitalize by shooting for a takedown but O’Malley defended well and quickly was able to push off and create space.
The finishing sequence started with another nasty front kick to the body by O’Malley. Sterling then rushed forward, lunging in with a missed left hand. As O’Malley backed up, he cracked Sterling with a straight right hand that dropped the champion forward into a faceplant. Sterling immediately rolled to his back and O’Malley went on the attack with hammerfists. O’Malley kept up the attack as Sterling laid on his back not offering much defense as he was clearly rocked. After a huge right hand landed flush the referee stepped in to call the TKO finish at 0:51 of Round 2.
After the fight O’Malley called for a rematch with Marlon Vera for his first title defense. The only loss of O’Malley’s career came at the hands of Vera via first round TKO at UFC 252 in August 2020.
Zhang Weili Dominates Amanda Lemos to Defend Strawweight Belt
In the first defense of her second reign as UFC Women’s Strawweight champion Zhang Weili was about as dominant as a fighter can be. Credit Amanda Lemos for surviving the entirety of the fight, but the stats paint a clear picture. According to the UFC website, Zhang landed 296 total strikes to 29 for Lemos. The significant strike differential was 163 to 24. Zhang landed 6 out of 7 takedown attempts, while Lemos was 0 for 0.
Thirty seconds into the fight, Zhang caught a body kick from Lemos and immediately planted her foe on the mat. Zhang eventually took side control as she used heavy pressure to control Lemos as she worked ground and pound. With two minutes left in the round, Lemos had one of her few bright moments in the fight as she applied a D’arce choke from bottom position. But Zhang remained calm and defended by escaping Lemos’ half-guard. Zhang then took Lemos’ back and landed heavy shots.
Other than that brief moment in Round 1, Lemos had few other good moments in the fight. She was able to land several hard right hands, a couple in the second round, but never put Zhang in trouble.
In the fifth round, Zhang opened with three hard side kicks before landing a body kick. She then landed a huge right hand that dropped Lemos on her backside. Zhang followed by landing big right hands and a stream of vicious hammerfists.
Lemos’ toughness cannot be questioned as she took an incredible amount of punishment in this fight. Despite Zhang’s onslaught, Lemos never appeared close to being finished.
It will be interesting to see who the UFC puts in front of Zhang for her next title defense. The two likeliest candidates appear to be Tatiana Suarez and China’s Yan Xiaonan. Suarez is undefeated and a worthy challenger, but a mega-fight with Xiaonan, possibly in China, might be too tempting for the UFC.
Ian Machado Garry Punishes Neil Magny With Brutal Leg Kick Attack
Ian Machado Garry kept his hype train rolling with a dominant unanimous decision victory over Neil Magny. The lopsided victory was represented in the judges’ scorecards of 30-26, 30-26, 30-24. Garry remains undefeated with the victory, improving to 13-0.
The 36-year-old Magny took the fight on short notice, but it was still a solid win for Garry as Magny holds the UFC record for most fights in the welterweight division with 31, as well as the most division wins with 21.
Garry repeatedly hammered Magny with punishing low kicks throughout the bout. The first one, just seconds into the fight, was to the back of Magny’s thigh and took out his leg as he dropped to the mat. The second low kick, this time to the calf, also dropped Magny. Late in the round, an outside calf kick put Magny down for a third time. Mangy had almost no success on the feet in the opening round and was visibly limping late in the round.
Magny began the second round by pressuring but had little success. One minute into the round another hard outside calf kick caused Magny to limp badly as he backed up. Midway through the round Magny was able to secure the clinch and looked for a takedown to no avail but was able to control Garry in the clinch for about one minute. Several more punishing leg kicks had Magny badly limping and wincing in pain.
It was more of the same in the final round as Garry continued the kick heavy attack. Just over a minute into the round a hard kick to the calf set Magny down near the fence. Garry then kicked the leg two more times on the grounded Magny and taunted his foe as be backed off to reset the fight on the feet.
Garry’s dominance is reflected in official UFC stats which had Magny landing only 27 significant strikes for the entire fight to Garry’s 91. After the fight Garry called out Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson.
Mario Bautista Takes Close Decision Over Da’Mon Blackshear
Mario Bautista won a close decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27) against Da’Mon Blackshear who took the fight on short notice as Bautista’s original opponent, former UFC Bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt, pulled out with an injury one week before the event. Blackshear fought just seven days earlier at UFC on ESPN: Luque vs. Dos Anjos. Blackshear was coming off an impressive twister submission of Jose Johnson in that fight.
Blackshear won the first round on the strength of his grappling with four takedowns. However, Bautista took no damage on the ground and got back to his feet in short order after each takedown.
Bautista had success in the second round landing multiple elbows from the clinch. Midway through the round, Blackshear scored with inside leg kicks and solid kicks to the body. Bautista pressured throughout the round as Blackshear started to slow down a bit. But Blackshear had success late in the round with a couple of hard right hands. It was a close round that could have went either way.
Bautista won the third round by a significant margin. He started the final round with more pressure and landed a few hard right hands early. Bautista also had success in the clinch landing hard elbows and knees. Halfway through the round, Bautista shot a double leg and was able to complete the takedown near the fence. Bautista did little damage via strikes but was able to take Blackshear’s back and control the position for most of the remainder of the round.
Chito Vera Sets Up Potential Sean O’Malley Rematch With Hard Fought Decision Victory Against Pedro Munoz
Marlon “Chito” Vera and Pedro Munhoz kicked off the main card in a bantamweight clash. Vera won a close, hard-fought unanimous decision by judges’ scores of 30-27, 30-27, 29-28. The first round was very close as Munhoz started fast by landing a high volume of hard leg kicks. Vera, a notorious slow starter, kept the opening frame close by repeatedly landing an accurate and hard jab.
The second round appeared to be another close round, with Munoz landing a higher volume of strikes, but Vera’s shots clearly were doing more damage as Munoz’s face was marked up by the end of the round.
The final round was the only round of the fight with a clear winner as Chito landed quite a few shots that hurt Munhoz. One minute into the round, Vera landed a hard, clean left hand as Munoz advanced that caused the Brazilian to take an awkward step backward. Just seconds later, Vera landed another jab that sent Munoz hopping backward. And the very next shot was another snapping Vera jab that caught Munhoz clean.
Vera continued his impressive striking display just moments later when he landed a hard combination left hook to the body followed with a straight right upstairs. Munhoz was clearly hurt multiple times in the round, but credit the Brazilian for incredible toughness as he never appeared close to being finished and continued to throw back throughout the fight.
With the victory, Vera has now won five of six. And with his August 2020 first round TKO victory over Sean O’Malley, Vera may be next in line for the new bantamweight champion’s first title defense.