Christian Rodriguez upsets Raul Rosas Jr with dominant victory at UFC 287
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us tonight, April 8, 2023, for UFC 287, going down live from the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida.
Headlining the event is a middleweight championship rematch, or quadrilogy, however you look at it, as current champion Alex Pereira (7-1) aims to make the first defense of his newly claimed title opposing former champion Israel Adesanya (23-2).
Co-headlining the event is a welterweight contenders’ bout between a pair of former title challengers where no. 5 ranked Gilbert Burns (21-5) takes on no. 11 ranked Jorge Masvidal (35-16).
Opening up the main card tonight was a bantamweight showdown between 18-year-old superstar Raul Rosas Jr (7-0) and his 25-year-old adversary Christian Rodriguez (8-1).
Rosas came into the bout fresh off his promotional debut that saw him submit 16-fight veteran Jay Perrin in round one, while Rodriguez had gone 1-1 thus far into his UFC tenure, losing a unanimous decision to Jonathan Pearce up at 145 lbs, and picking up a first-round submission victory of his own in his latest appearance.
Continue reading to see how this bantamweight match up went down:
Official Result: Christian Rodriguez def. Raul Rosas Jr via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Rosas shoots in on a double leg as soon as the fight begins, and he’s absolutely relentless with his takedown attempts, almost like Khamzat Chimaev. We’re worried about him fatiguing, but eventually he secures his first takedown of the fight on his fourth attempt.
Rosas is right into Rodriguez’ side control, until he falls back for a front choke and ends up on bottom. He gets up soon thereafter and ends up accumulating some cage control time.
Rosas jumps up onto Rodriguez’ back and searches for a rear naked choke for the final two or so minutes of round one.
Rosas comes out with the same pace in the second and he’s absolutely exhausted by time the round ends.
Rodriguez is able to slow him down by stuffing most of his takedowns, and he got some top control time in the middle stretch, ending the round with Rosas in his body triangle.
Rosas doesn’t shoot on a takedown right away to start the third and final round. Instead, he tries to strike with Rodriguez, but he’s getting boxed up and is forced to take a shot.
Instead of securing top position, Rosas spends most of round three with Rodriguez on top of him, reigning down heavy punches and elbows from mount and the body triangle.
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