UFC Vegas 62 main event: Alexa Grasso defeats Viviane Araujo
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us tonight, October 15, 2022, just one week out from UFC 280, for UFC Vegas 62, going down live from the UFC Apex in Enterprise, Nevada.
Headlining the event is a women’s flyweight contest between no. 5 ranked Alexa Grasso (14-3) and no. 6 ranked Viviane Araujo (11-3).
Co-headlining is a bantamweight affair between longtime featherweight staple Cub Swanson (28-12) and surging prospect Jonathan Martinez (16-4).
Reverting back to our main event; Grasso had won her last three-straight bouts since moving up to the 125 lb division, while Araujo was 3-1 over her last four coming into tonight’s main event affair.
Click here for UFC Vegas 62 results
Continue reading to see how this flyweight main event went down:
Official Result: Alexa Grasso def. Viviane Araujo via unanimous decision (50-45, 49-46, 49-46)
Both ladies get right to it and begin to kickbox one another immediately at the start of the bout. Grasso’s boxing is looking sharp, as it nearly always does, while Araujo is having success with her leg kicks. That was a very close opening round, as the two mixed it up beautifully.
The second round is more of the same, Grasso landing some nice punches, and Araujo landing mostly kicks while mixing some punches in there.
However, Araujo secures a takedown midway through the round and remains on top for 80 seconds or so. Once getting back to her feet, Grasso lands some more hard punches to end the round as she sits down into them, but is again taken down at the very end.
As long as Grasso can keep the fight standing, it appears she’ll take the victory. She’s mixing in just enough kicks and she’s pulling away in the head strike totals, as well as the significant and total strike counts.
After three rounds were completed one could believe Grasso to be winning, though it is quite close.
One thing to consider is this was each woman’s five round fight, it was interesting to see them go into the fourth and fifth rounds for the first time.
As former WEC & UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz has stated in the commentary booth, neither of these women are showing any feints, and it’s making this fight much more tit-for-tat. The striking totals are becoming closer, and the fight is becoming harder and harder to score as it goes on.
Grasso lands a hard right hand to begin the fifth and final round, and Araujo returns a right hand of her own that backs Grasso up.
Grasso suffered just two takedowns, both in round two. Aside from that, she stuffed the other seven attempts throughout every other round. And, Araujo boasted just 100 exact seconds of total control time in those two takedowns.
Araujo continues to press the action and control the center, and Grasso continues to land those right hands of hers, as well as her left jab.
This was a very close fight, though the scorecards read anything but.
Nonetheless, Alexa Grasso has now won four-straight fights in the UFC flyweight division, and it’s time for her to take a big step up after this victory.
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