Maurice Greene submits Gian Villante in crazy final round
Maurice Greene gets submission win in final round.
The last of the UFC Apex cards in Las Vegas before the UFC heads to “Fight Island,” as UFC on ESPN 12 goes down tonight, Saturday, June 27.
The event is headlined by former interim lightweight champion Dustin Poirier and rising contender Dan Hooker. Welterweights Mike Perry and Mickey Gall will meet in the co-main event of the evening.
Prior to those two bouts, heavyweights Gian Villante and Maurice Greene will make the walk to the octagon.
Villante (17-11) is former football standout at Hofstra University where he was also a member of the wrestling team alongside former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman. The MMA veteran will be making his heavyweight debut and is looking to get back in the win column as he’s coming off a TKO loss to Michal Oleksiejczuk in February 2019. This will be his first fight of 2020.
Greene (8-4) is coming off back-to-back losses to Sergei Pavlovich and Aleksei Olenik. Prior to those losses he won his first three UFC fights.
Here’s how their fight went down at UFC on ESPN 12, including round-by-round scoring.
Round 1
Greene is using his length too keep Villante away. Both fighters are patience in the early going.
90 seconds into the fight and Greene lands a nice front kick to the stomach of Villante. A few seconds later Greens kick is low and Villante takes a break to rest after the low blow.
Once the action resumes Villante is starting to pick up his pace, but Greene’s length is still too much for him.
Greene is doing a lot of work with his legs by throwing a lot of kicks to the legs and body.
Villante lands a great kick to the body and the shot to the body of his own and Greene is hurt, but Greene is still able to keep Villante away with his reach advantage. Greene was the busier and more effective striker and wins the round.
MyMMANews scores it 10-9 Greene
Round 2
Villante said in-between rounds that he broke is toe.
Greene opens the round by being active and throwing tons of jabs and mixing in kicks.
Greene is starting to settle in and landing tons of combos. He even landed a big leg kick that hurt Villante.
Villante lands two big leg kicks as we come to the half way point of the round.
As the round is coming towards an end, Villante is starting to have success with leg kicks and even went high with a kick that partially lands.
Strong end for Villante might steal him the round.
MyMMANews scores it 10-9 Villante
Round 3
Greene’s coaches are begging him to start checking kicks, but Villante lands two nice leg kicks and follows up with a heavy over hand right.
Both guys are throwing bombs and in the mix of it Greene pokes Villante in the eye and the referee stops the action to let Villante rest.
Once the fight resumes with four minutes left in the round, Greene swings and misses and Villante lands a huge shot that drops Greene.
Villante smells blood and hops on Greene and starts throwing a bunch of heavy shots from the top position. Greene appears to whether the storm, but he’s on the bottom of Villante, who has a lot of time to work.
Final two minutes and Villante isn’t doing much work from the top and he’s breathing super heavy. As he goes for a strike, Greene sneaks in a choke. Villante would tap out and the fight is over. Crazy ending as Villante was close to possibility getting a 10-8 round. Greene back in the win column.
Official Result: Maurice Greene defeats Gian Villante by third-round submission.
