It was nearly a perfect event for the Australian contingent at UFC 275 earlier today with Jake Matthews, Jack Della Maddalena and Joshua Culibao all walking away with impressive victories.
However it wasn’t to be for Jacob Malkoun who was edged in his middleweight outing.
UFC 275 took place at the Singapore Indoor Stadium and was headlined by a UFC light-heavyweight title fight.
At 27-years-old, Jake Matthews is already a veteran inside the Octogan, appearing today for 16th time since his debut at the age of 19 back in 2014. It was also one of his most impressive outings, as he put on a composed performance to stop Andre Fialho in the second-round. Matthews showed in pin-point accuracy with his punches after landing early leg kicks. The Aussie did look in danger momentarily towards the end of the first-round as his foot gave way and he ended up on his back to see out the round.
Fialho stayed the more aggressive of the two, but it was Matthews who was landing the crispier shots as he chained his punches both high and to the mid-section. Fialho was rocked with shot after shot and after being dropped to the canvas, the referee halted the contest.
BIGGEST WIN OF JAKE MATTHEWS' CAREER ?
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— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) June 12, 2022
The win, which was Matthews’ first since September 2019, moves his record to 18-5 (UFC 11-5). Fialho drops to 16-4 (UFC 2-2).
Many fighters get overwhelmed with the adrenalin and/or pressures that come from fighting in the UFC. Western Australian fighter Jack Della Maddalena has so far risen to the occasion and secured another stoppage against Emeev today
Maddalena escaped a tight anaconda submission early and went to work on his feet. Mixing it up on his feet, Maddalena hurt Emeev with a liver shot that dropped him. He followed it up with shots to get a second consecutive stoppage in the UFC.
Maddalena moves to 12-2 (UFC 2-0) while Emeev, a former combat sambo world champion drops to 20-5 (UFC 5-2).
On the preliminary card, Joshua Culibao took home a suprising split-decision against South Korean opponent Seung Woo Choi.
Surprising as a judge scored it to Choi, despite the Aussie seemingly taking the first two rounds and Choi finishing the Australian seemed to have taken the opening two rounds only for his opponent to finish strong in the last round.
Nonetheless, the right hand was raised as Culibao now has career back on track with two straight victories in the UFC. He moves to 10-1, 1 draw (UFC 2-1) while Choi drops to 10-5 (UFC 3-4).
A training partner of Robert Whittaker, Sydney’s Jacob Malkoun was looking for a second consecutive win in the Octagon but came undone as the judges decided to take the damage from Brendan Allen over Malkoun’s ground control, by awarding him the unanimous decision.
It wasn’t the overwhelming opinion though, with 50% of the media on mmadecisions.com scoring it the way of Malkoun who with the loss, drops to 6-2 (UFC 2-2). The more experienced Allen moves to 19-5 (UFC 4-1).
Full Results:
- Jiri Prochazka def. Glover Teixeira via Submission (Rear-Naked Choke), Rd 5, 4:32 – UFC light-heavyweight title
- Valentina Shevchenko def. Taila Santos via Decision (Split) – UFC women’s flyweight title
- Weili Zhang def. Joanna Jedrzejczyk via KO (Spinning Backfist), Rd 2, 2:28
- Jake Matthews def. Andre Fialho via KO (Punches), Rd 2, 2:24
- Jack Della Maddalena def. Ramazan Emeev via TKO (Punches), Rd 1, 2:32
- Joshua Culibao def. Seung Woo Choi via Decision (Split)
- Maheshate Hayisaer def. Steve Garcia via KO (Punch), Rd 1, 1:14
- Brendan Allen def. Jacob Malkoun via Decision (Unanimous)
- Kyung Ho Kang def. Batgerel Danaa via Decision (Unanimous)
- Silvana Gomez Juarez def. Na Liang via KO (Punches), Rd 1, 1:22
- Joselyne Edwards def. Ramona Pascual via Decision (Unanimous)
