Su Mudaerji earned his first finish in the UFC with a knockout victory over Malcolm Gordon at UFC Vegas 15, which took place on Saturday night (local time) at the Apex Centre in Las Vegas.
Entering his flyweight debut, Mudaerji was the biggest favorite on the card and justified the betting odds with a fierce display of striking in the first round. Gordon was never in the fight.
The Canadian pressured from the start and it backfired completely when a straight left landed and rocked him early. A couple more shots had Gordon covered up and that is when Mudaerji teed off with hooks.
Moving up
Gordon could not weather the storm and dropped to the canvas, prompting the referee to jump in at 44 seconds. The only Tibetan fighter for the promotion picks up back to back wins and sets the stage for better competition in his next outing.
He obtains his 13th overall finish and moves his record to 13-4. The 30-year-old Gordon, on the other hand, loses his second straight in the first round and drops to 13-5 overall.
The Tibetan also picked up a $50,000 USD performance bonus.
"I finished this fight so fast, but this was my plan."@Mudaerji_Su's first UFC finish was exactly the statement he wanted to make as he sets his eyes higher up the flyweight ladder. pic.twitter.com/wwmjppo7Pb
— UFC News (@UFCNews) November 29, 2020
Back and forth
Japanese star Takashi Sato took on co-main event duties after some shuffling due to Covid-19 and was submitted by rising welterweight Miguel Baeza in the second round.
It was back and forth with both competitors trading the center of the cage in the opening five minutes. While Sato was somewhat limited to boxing combinations, Baeza did a better job with mixing in kicks and knees in the clinch. By the end of the first round, Sato had a good size cut under his right eye.
The jab was effective for 30-year-old Sato at the start of the second round. The American from MMA Masters, however, utilized the kicks to the breadbasket and open up paths to land hooks to the cranium.
Tapping out
The single-leg takedown came out of nowhere and Sato found himself turtled up after getting slammed to the canvas. Baeza laced up the body lock and slid in the hooks. After a rear-naked choke attempt, the 28-year-old prospect wrapped up an arm-triangle choke initiating the tap to end the fight.
Baeza now has defeated two legit veterans in Sato and Matt Brown and keeps his flawless 10-0 record intact, while Sato loses his last two out of three and drops to 16-4.
🔟 & 0️⃣ @Thunder92Baeza making noise in the UFC#UFCVegas15 pic.twitter.com/q28ElS8OW0
— UFC (@ufc) November 29, 2020
Best of the rest
In the main event, Anthony Smith gets back on track by taking down Devin Clark and choking him in the first round. Smith (34-16) returned to the winner’s circle after back to back losses to Aleksander Rakic and Glover Teixeira and proved all the doubters wrong, while Clark (12-4) falls short again against another top-ranked light heavyweight.
UFC Vegas 15, Las Vegas, November 28th
Anthony Smith def. Devin Clark via submission (triangle choke) at 2:34 of Round 1
Parker Porter def. Josh Parisian via unanimous decision
Miguel Baeza def. Takashi Sato via submission (arm-triangle choke) at 4:28 of Round 2
Bill Algeo def. Spike Carlyle via unanimous decision
Norma Dumont Viana def. Ashlee Evans-Smith via unanimous decision
Jonathan Pearce def. Kai Kamaka III via TKO (strikes) at 4:28 of Round 2
Anderson dos Santos def. Martin Day via submission (guillotine choke) at 4:35 of Round 1
Gina Mazany def. Rachael Ostovich via TKO (strikes) at 4:10 of Round 3
Mudaerji Su def. Malcolm Gordon via KO (strikes) at 0:44 of Round 1
Nathan Maness def. Luke Sanders via submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:29 of Round 2
