Augusto Sakai snaps four-fight skid with victory over Don’Tale Mayes at UFC Vegas 70
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returned to us tonight, February 25, 2023, for UFC Vegas 70, going down live from the UFC Apex in Enterprise, Nevada.
Headlining the event was a light-heavyweight bout between a pair of dangerous finishers in no. 6 ranked Nikita Krylov (29-9) and no. 8 ranked Ryan Spann (21-7).
Co-headlining the event is a middleweight showdown between Andre Muniz (23-4) and Brendan Allen (20-5).
Our feature fight of the evening came in the heavyweight division between Augusto Sakai (15-5-1) and Don’Tale Mayes (9-5).
Sakai made it to 15-1-1 as a professional up until 2020 before going on a recent four-fight skid, seeing him lose all four bouts via some form of knockout or another, while Mayes had gone 2-0 (1 NC) through his most recent three outings following an 0-2 start to his UFC tenure.
Continue reading to see how this heavyweight feature fight went down:
Official Result: Augusto Sakai def. Don’Tale Mayes via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Sakai is landing some nasty leg kicks right out of the gate and soon ties up with Mayes along the fence. Mayes is able to reverse him not long thereafter before Sakai separates and they’re back to striking.
Mayes shoots in on a double leg in the middle of the cage, which Sakai easily stuffs. Sakai keeps the front head lock position and backs Mayes into the fence once again, where he lands a series of knees to Mayes’ head, at least 20 knees must’ve been landed in total through the second half of round one.
Sakai is winning the striking exchanges, he won the clinch exchanges, and he won the brief grappling exchanges at the end of the opening round.
Much of round two is spent in the clinch along the fence as well, with Sakai winning almost all of the exchanges.
Mayes is absolutely exhausted at this point, as Sakai is able to drag him down to the mat twice in the third and final round, and just continued to wear on him the entire 15 minutes.
Augusto Sakai snaps his four-fight losing streak with a forgettable, but dominant victory at UFC Vegas 70.
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