Ferguson wins interim lightweight title; Johnson makes record 11th defense
TOP-ranked Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight fighter Tony “El Cucuy” Ferguson positioned himself for a title fight after surviving an explosive encounter for the interim belt yesterday at “UFC 216” in Las Vegas while flyweight champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson dominated his way to a record 11th straight successful title defense.
Played out in the aftermath of the deadly shooting in Las Vegas last week and with the spirit of “Vegas Strong ” very much alive, Messrs. Ferguson and Johnson displayed tremendous fighting skills to get the better of their respective opponents in impressive fashion.
Mr. Ferguson had it rough early against Kevin “The Motown Phenom” Lee but found ways to fight his way through before finishing things in the third round.
Managing to put Mr. Lee in the armbar, Mr. Ferguson wasted no time in going for it.
But Mr. Lee was able to survive it only for Mr. Ferguson to get back at him by transitioning to a triangle choke that led Mr. Lee to tap out at the 4:02 mark.
“Whoa! It’s amazing!” Mr. Ferguson blurted out after being declared the winner.
“It was the kind of fight I was expecting. He (Lee) is a tough fighter and very aggressive,” he added.
Mr. Ferguson went on to call out reigning lightweight champion Conor “The Notorious” McGregor to come out and face him and unify the title in the division.
“Where you at [ Conor]? Get your ass here and defend your title!” said Mr. Ferguson (23-3), who rolled to his 10th straight win.
With the loss, Mr. Lee dropped to 16-3.
HISTORY MAKING
In the co-main event, UFC legend Johnson solidified his standing as arguably the greatest fighter of all time by booking his 11th straight successful title defense with a dominant victory over challenger Rey “The Tazmexican” Borg that culminated in a submission in the fifth and final round by way of armbar.
Mr. Johnson, 31, was all over his young challenger Borg, 24, never allowing the latter to get much headway.
So dominating was Mighty Mouse that the fight numbers were never really close despite the determination and courage that Mr. Borg showed throughout.
Mr. Johnson had more total strikes, 172-22, with an 82% efficiency rate, and significant strikes, 64-13.
He took down his opponent five more times, 8-3, all successful ones, and had more submission attempts, 2-0.
And while everybody thought with the distance he had over Mr. Borg was enough to force Mr. Johnson to just coast to the win, the champion suddenly exploded midway into the fifth by lifting the challenger in the air and slammed him down while locked in an armbar.
It signaled the end for Borg, who moments later tapped out, forcing referee Dan Miragliotta to stop the fight at the 3:15 mark.
“Rey Borg is a tough fighter and I just stuck to my game plan and I knew I will get him,“said Mr. Johnson, who improved to 27 wins, two losses and a draw and stretched his win streak to 13 straight fights.
The win allowed Mr. Johnson to break the record he erstwhile shared with another UFC legend Anderson “The Spider” Silva of 10 straight successful title defenses.
Mr. Borg (11-3), for his part, saw his fight win streak halted at two after the loss.
In earlier fights, former heavyweight champions Fabricio Werdum made short work of last-minute replacement opponent Walt Harris with an opening- round submission ( armbar), women’s flyweight Mara Romero Borella was a first-round winner by submission (rear-naked choke) over Kalindra Faria, lightweights Beneil Dariush and Evan Dunham fought to a majority draw (29-27, 28-28 and 28-28).
Next for the UFC is “UFC Fight Night 118” on Oct. 22 ( Manila time) in Poland that will feature the welterweight battle between Donald Cerrone and Darren Till as wells as the women’s strawweight engagement between Karolina Kowalkiewicz and Jodie Esquibel.
In the Philippines, Cignal TV, the country’s foremost direct-tohome (DTH) company, is the home of the UFC after the two groups agreed to an extensive deal that will see the UFC beamed on various platforms. —