Neil Magny edges Philip Rowe on the cards, extends 170 lb wins record and breaks two others at UFC on ABC 5
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us today, June 24, 2023, for UFC on ABC 5, going down live from the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida.
Headlining the event is an epic clash of featherweight contenders where no. 5 ranked Josh Emmett (18-3) collides with no. 9 ranked Ilia Topuria (13-0) in the main event of the evening.
Co-headlining is a flyweight encounter between another pair of contenders in no. 9 ranked Amanda Ribas (12-3) and no. 11 ranked Maycee Barber (12-2).
Our preliminary main event of the evening came at 170 lbs between the winningest fighter in UFC welterweight history Neil Magny (27-11) and the surging Philip Rowe (10-4).
Magny came into the bout having gone 3-2 over his latest five appearances, losing to no. 6 ranked Shavkat Rakhmonov and no. 5 ranked Gilbert Burns in that time, while Rowe had gone 3-0 with three knockouts since losing his UFC debut to unranked Gabe Green in early 2021.
Continue reading to see how this welterweight encounter went down:
Official Result: Neil Magny def. Philip Rowe via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Much of the opening round is spent with these two clinching one another along the fence, taking turns pressing the other into it. Rowe does land a hard right hand toward the end of the round once they’re separated, but they go right back to clinching along the fence for the remainder of the round.
Rowe secures a takedown early on in round two and ends up taking Magny’s back with a standing body triangle. A couple minutes later however he’s shrugged off with the rest of the round showing Magny pressuring Rowe.
The third and final round is also quite back and forth. This was a difficult fight to score; Rowe had success early on in the first and second, and he had success in the third. On the contrary, Magny did well in the second half of the first and second rounds, and had success in the third.
Neil Magny breaking records with his 14th decision victory at #UFCJacksonville 👏
[@MikeBohn] pic.twitter.com/dnmjLxQ9t5
— MMA Orbit (@mma_orbit) June 24, 2023
Neil Magny extends his record for most wins in UFC welterweight history from 20 to 21, and he also surpassed former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman for the most significant strikes landed in divisional history. Though it was a close, contested, and honestly boring fight, this was a good win for ‘The Haitian Sensation’.
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