MIAMI — Sean O’Malley emphatically defended his bantamweight belt Saturday night time, unanimously defeating Marlon “Chito” Vera in UFC 299.
In a battle that he managed from the opening spherical, O’Malley (18-1) outclassed Vera along with his quickness, precision putting and footwork.
The defending champion threw 344 punches, touchdown greater than 50 % of them.
He was the extra lively fighter all through, hurting Vera (23-9-1) with photographs to the physique, knees to the face, and countering almost each one in every of Vera’s connections with one in every of his personal.
It was O’Malley’s first protection of his bantamweight title after stopping former champion Aljamain Sterling 51 seconds into the second spherical at UFC 292 final August.
Vera handed O’Malley the one defeat of his profession almost 4 years in the past by touchdown a leg kick that brought on O’Malley’s proper foot to go numb within the first spherical of UFC 252.
O’Malley has usually downplayed that loss — the kick shut down the peroneal nerve in his decrease leg, inflicting tempary lack of feeling — and vowed to dominate within the rematch.
“I’m guessing we are able to all agree that I’m undefeated nonetheless,” O’Malley stated after Saturday’s match.
Instantly after the five-round battle, O’Malley sat down on the canvas after Vera harm him late with a shot to the physique — one that might have been far more important if it was landed earlier within the battle.
“I attempted to remain toe to toe with him and catch him,” Vera stated. “On the finish of the fifth spherical I landed a pleasant physique that harm him, however I ran out of time.”
Former interim light-weight champion and future UFC Corridor of Famer Dustin Poirier knocked out up-and-comer Benoit Saint Denis with a proper hand within the second spherical of their light-weight match.
Saint Denis had harm Poirier with punches within the early spherical earlier than the veteran dropped him with a proper hook at 2:52 within the second spherical.
The victory moved Poirier right into a tie for the fourth-most wins (22) in UFC historical past.
Jack Della Maddalena stretched his successful streak to 17 with the most important victory of his profession.
He stopped Gilbert Burns within the third spherical of their bout with a crushing knee to the top, moments after it appeared Burns had secured a fight-clinching takedown.
Della Maddalena adopted the knee with a collection of elbows on the bottom for a TKO victory at 3:43 within the closing spherical of the 170-pound battle.
