Marcos Rogerio de Lima Dominates Maurice Greene To UD Victory At UFC Vegas 26
The UFC touches down in Las Vegas, Nevada once again tonight, May 8, 2021, for UFC Vegas 26 live on ESPN & ESPN+.
Headlining the event came a women’s flyweight bout between top ten strawweight talents Marina Rodriguez and Michelle Waterson, considering the original main event, TJ Dillashaw versus Cory Sandhagen, has been postponed.
Notice it says a flyweight (125 lb) match up between strawweight (115 lb) contenders. It was agreed upon by both women that they fight a weight class above, as they’re fighting two extra rounds on short notice.
Don’t get it mixed though, this bout does have strawweight title, or at the least top contender implications.
Co-headlining the bout is also a short notice encounter, this one between Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone and Alex ‘The Great White’ Morono.
This was originally set to be a legend versus legend bout, with Cerrone facing The Ultimate Fighter I winner Diego Sanchez, but Sanchez has within the last two weeks been released from the promotion, leaving Morono to take his spot.
Right in the middle of the main card came a heavyweight clash between dangerous finishers Maurice Greene and Marcos Rogerio de Lima. Greene has gone 1-3 over his last four after opening up his UFC tenure winning his first three fights, even avenging a previous defeat in one of them.
His last fight came against Greg Hardy, where he was TKO’d in round two, bringing his record to 9-5.
De Lima on the other hand hasn’t won two-straight since his first two UFC fights.
Since then, he’s won one, then lost one, and that’s been the cycle he’s had since 2015. He lost his last fight to Alexander Romanov, bringing his UFC record to 6-5, and his overall record to 17-7-1.
If it goes according to the pattern, de Lima wins this fight.
Continue reading to see how this heavyweight showcase went down:
Official Result: Marcos Rogerio de Lima def. Maurice Greene via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-27)
Round 1
De Lima comes out swinging wildly, while Greene is also coming forward throwing heavy, rather than using his range and length to his advantage. Greene does however step in with a couple nice elbows, before de Lima ties up with him.
Greene is pressed into the fence at the moment. De Lima tries to drag him down, which was easy considering Greene pulled guard in the middle of the takedown. De Lima remained on top of Greene for the rest of the round, keeping Greene’s head right up against the fence.
Some of us were thinking this may have been good for Greene, because he has a good guard, and all five of de Lima’s UFC defeats come via submission. However, that positioning kept that from happening.
Round 2
De Lima secures double underhooks as soon as round two starts and slams Greene back down to the mat, right into Greene’s side control. Greene is able to recover half guard, but is unable to do anything else. He’s doing enough to not get finished, but he needs to do something big in round three.
Round 3
Greene really tried to stuff the takedown this time. He backed himself up to the fence once de Lima tied up with him and tried to dig his underhook, but de Lima’s too strong. Greene is right back where he found himself throughout the first two rounds.
Again, like the first two rounds, de Lima controls Greene from the top without doing much of anything.
The trend of Marcos Rogerio de Lima’s streak continues.
