Gabriel Benitez vs Charlie Ontiveros added to UFC on ESPN 41
UFC on ESPN 41 is quickly coming together, as the Ultimate Fighting Championship continues adding exciting match ups to the card.
Headlined by former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz, who faces fellow top 10 ranked Marlon Vera in the main event of the evening, UFC on ESPN 41 is to go down on August 13, 2022, live from the Pechanga Arena in San Diego, California.
Another exciting scrap that’s been added to the card comes in the lightweight division between a pair of talented strikers in Gabriel Benitez and Charlie Ontiveros.
Benitez has run into a bit of a rough patch as of late, going 1-4 over the course of his last five bouts, but he hasn’t been losing to bums as some would say. He lost his latest two appearances to Billy Quarantillo and David Onama, two solid talents, bringing his record to 22-10.
Ontiveros on the other hand, it’s kind of surprising the UFC is giving him another shot, but it’s also very exciting. He comes into the bout with a record of 11-8, having gone 0-2 thus far into his UFC career with two TKO defeats.
Actually, all eight of his defeats come via some form of knockout or another, which is also surprising.
Ontiveros is an incredibly flashy, long and lanky striker with a lot of skill on the feet.
His problem, both of his UFC opponents quickly took him down in their fights.
The first came against Kevin Holland up at 185 lbs, yikes.
That’s literally two divisions, and 30 lbs above his natural weight class.
Ontiveros stepped in for Makhmud Muradov on short notice, and as soon as Holland took him down, he suffered a neck injury, stopping the fight in its tracks at 2:39 of the opening round. He was actually tagging Holland up on the feet too, thus the reason Holland shot in on a takedown.
Ontiveros returned one year later to face Steve Garcia, who also played the wrestling game, taking him down and finishing him with strikes at 1:51 of the second round.
Though Benitez is well versed on the ground, he’s primarily a striker himself, and one could hope this fight plays out on the feet so we can see more of Ontiveros’ striking, because it is a thing of beauty to watch.
Who walks away from this lightweight encounter at UFC on ESPN 41 as the victor? Will it be Gabriel Benitez or Charlie Ontiveros?
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