Steve Garcia discusses his UFC Vegas 63 win over Chase Hooper
Steve Garcia is coming off a huge win at UFC Vegas 63.
Prior to even signing a bout agreement, Garcia made a decision to drop down to featherweight after posting a 1-2 record at lightweight.
When Garcia first started his career, he was a bantamweight, but after some health issues, he elected to fight at lightweight to avoid a massive weight cut.
Garcia felt he was more of a natural featherweight and after feeling better he decided it was time to give 145 pounds a try and his experiment at featherweight turned out great.
At UFC Vegas 64, Garcia was matched up against Chase Hooper, who is a fan favorite and has been pushed hard by the promotion for his high level ground game.
So far in Hooper’s career, his standup has been developing and due to some inexperience, some fighters have been able to take advantage of it.
Garcia knew if he got his hands on him, he was going to dominate the fight and as the fight played out, that’s exactly what happened.
Garcia watched the second fight between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz in the lead up to the fight and noticed that McGregor had success with a hook in the southpaw vs. southpaw matchup in that fight.
After seeing McGregor have that success, Garcia knew his hook would be a big factor and it was as he dropped Hopper four times in the first round before the referee stopped the fight.
Following the win, Garcia spoke to MyMMANews about his performance which earned him a performance of the night bonus, his film study and what’s next as this fight was the last on his UFC contract.
You can watch his full interview in the video above.
A full list of results from UFC Vegas 63 are listed below:
Arnold Allen defeated Calvin Kattar via TKO (injury) – Round 2, 0:08 |
Max Griffin defeated Tim Means via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27)
Waldo Cortes-Acosta defeated Jared Vanderaa via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Tresean Gore defeated Josh Fremd via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 2, 0:49
Khalil Rountree defeated Dustin Jacoby via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Roman Dolidze defeated Phil Hawes via KO (punches) – Round 1, 4:09
Marcos Rogerio defeated Lima def. Andrei Arlovski via sub (RNC) – Round 1, 1:50
Jun Yong Park defeated Joseph Holmes via sub (RNC) – Round 2, 3:04
Steve Garcia defeated Chase Hooper via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 1:32
Cody Durden defeated Carlos Mota via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
