Danilo Marques mauls and submits Mike Rodriguez at UFC Vegas 18
The UFC returns to Las Vegas, Nevada tonight, February 6, 2021 for UFC Vegas 18, headlined by two multi-organization heavyweight world champions in No. 5 ranked Alistair Overeem and No. 6 ranked Alexander Volkov.
The event will be co-headlined by former UFC lightweight champion, No. 4 ranked UFC bantamweight contender Frankie Edgar, who will be facing No. 2 ranked UFC bantamweight contender Cory Sandhagen.
UFC Vegas 18’s card has been switched up a bit today, making the first fight of the main card a light-heavyweight affair between Mike Rodriguez and Danilo Marques.
Rodriguez has shown us moments of brilliance, but he’s also shown a lack of experience at times. It’s unfortunate how his last fight went, because it shouldn’t be a defeat. He TKO’d Ed Herman in round two, before being submitted in round three. He gets the chance to right that wrong here tonight.
Marques has fought a single time inside the UFC, where he defeated Khadis Ibragimov via unanimous decision.
Continue reading to see how this 205 lb bout went down:
Round 1
Marques pressures Rodriguez as soon as the fight starts, and secures a single leg takedown about one minute into round one. Rodriguez was able to make his way back to his feet, but couldn’t keep Marques off him and got taken down with another single leg.
The majority of the round was spent with Marques on top, Rodriguez attempting to get up, or simply just defending Marques’ attack. With about 25 seconds left, Rodriguez makes his way back to his feet and lands a nice elbow on the break.
Round 2
Rodriguez was looking good early on in round two, after appearing to be fatigued once round one was over. He was moving well and landing nice shots, until Marques got in on another single leg and took him down again, this time into side control.
Marques gets the mount and reigns down some heavy ground-and-pound, he’s doing a stellar job controlling Rodriguez, making it incredibly hard for him to get up.
Marques takes Rodriguez’ back with about a minute left in the round, secures the body triangle, and gets the rear naked choke finish late in round two.
Official Result: Danilo Marques def. Mike Rodriguez via technical submission (rear naked choke) at 4:52 of round two
