Nicolas Dalby rallies to defeat Claudio Silva at UFC London
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us today, July 23, 2022, for UFC Fight Night 208, going down live from the o2 Arena in London, England.
Headlining the event is a heavyweight clash of contenders between no. 4 Curtis Blaydes (16-3-0-1) and no. 6 Tom Aspinall (12-2), and co-headlining is a middleweight contest between Jack Hermansson (22-7) and Chris Curtis (29-8).
Opening up the event tonight was a welterweight contest between Danish talent Nicolas Dalby (19-4-1-2) and Brazilian adversary Claudio Silva (14-3). Continue reading to see how this 170 lb encounter went down:
Official Result: Nicolas Dalby def. Claudio Silva via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-27)
Silva immediately takes the center once the bout begins, and he quickly grabs onto a single leg. He holds onto the single for the better part of a minute, before he’s able to floor Dalby with it.
Silva then jumps straight to mount and remains on top for the rest of the first round, racking up nearly four minutes of control time in the opening stretch.
Silva begins the second in the same manner, as he quickly takes Dalby down and takes his back. After a couple more minutes of dominant position however, Dalby’s able to spin into his guard, as he starts to reign down some punches and elbows. Silva is able to get back to his feet before too long, but is visibly fading as Dalby is getting stronger.
It’s 19-19 going into the third.
Silva comes out desperately to start the third, and is immediately put on his back by Dalby, who settles into his guard and begins pounding away. It isn’t enough to secure the stoppage, but it’s enough to keep Silva on his back.
Dalby let’s him up midway through the round, and to our surprise, Silva secures a beautiful takedown with about 70-80 seconds left on the clock. He’d remain on top until the final five seconds, where Dalby was able to stand back up.
This was a very close fight; Silva started off great, and Dalby finished a tad stronger.
Nicolas Dalby has now gone 3-1-0-1 since returning to the octagon in September of 2019.
There was a point where Claudio Silva was 14-1 as a professional, including a 5-0 run in the UFC with three submission victories, and another of those wins came over Leon Edwards. He’s since lost his last three straight.
The Danish Dynamite, indeed 🧨🧨🧨@DalbyMMA is back in the win column with a dominant showing at #UFCLondon!
[ Prelims are LIVE on @ESPNPlus ] pic.twitter.com/aHOGpl4MuI
— UFC (@ufc) July 23, 2022
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