The come-back event, UFC Fight Night Rozenstruik vs Sakai was an interesting card with the women's Flyweight (125 lbs) added last minute to the main card on the fall out in the Tom Breese and Antonio Arroyo fight. Apparently Breese was dealing with some medical issues and didn’t get the doctor's clearance to take part in the competition.

That worked really well for the American De La Rosa as she won a close fight versus her Brazilian counterpart Ariane Lipski.

Lipski worked her crisp boxing early in the fight and tagged De La Rosa with a right. But it was De La Rosa’s wrestling and ground and pound that stole the show. Referee Keith Peterson had seen enough damage with those vicious elbows and called the fight in Round 2.

Let’s have a look at the results of the main card below:

The three fights that stood out were the Fight of the Night – Santiago Ponzinibbio vs Miguel Baeza, the co-main and the main event of the evening.

The Fight of the Night bonus winning battle in the welterweight (170 lbs) division was a highly anticipated contest between Argentinian Santiago Ponzinibbio and undefeated American Miguel Baeza. The striking friendly battle will see the veteran Herb Dean officiate the proceedings.

Santiago was quick to take centre stage and start off with some kicks. Baeza fires back with his own version of leg kicks (few being checked by Santiago). The body kick – leg kick combination by Miguel was the highlight of this round. Clearly the first round went to Miguel.

Round 2 began with the signature calf kick by Miguel that stung Santiago. Santiago is light on his lead leg but manages to stick in a few crisp shots. Miguel wasn’t giving up on the calf kicks, but Santiago was just beginning to find his rhythm and land perfect combinations. Santiago’s jabs are bothering Miguel and the leg kicks don’t seem to be working. Santiago attempts a take down in the later half of the round, only to get back to his jabs. Both the fighters are one round each at the end of round 2.

Round 3 starts the same way with both fighters taking the centre. Santiago stifles Miguel with a quick jab and Miguel goes back to his calf kick. Midway through, Miguel lands a solid one-two that gets Santiago’s attention. But he’s quick to recover from it and fire off a series of clean shots. The highlight of this round comes towards the end when Santiago lands a huge shot that flings Miguel's mouthpiece out. A huge left from Santiago ends round 3.

With a 122 strikes versus Miguel’s 104, this Fight of the Night surely lived up to the expectation.

The co-main event of the evening was between the heavies when Marcin Tybura took on Walt Harris.

Harris comes in the red corner and looks calm and composed for a fighter that is on a 2 fight losing streak. Polish star Tybura is on a 4 fight win streak and is seen with a smirk on his face as his name is announced.

Both the warriors take centre stage as the bell goes off and touches gloves. Referee Mark Smith has to be on his A game. It's never easy refereeing a heavyweight fight. Harris starts off with a front kick only to receive one in exchange by Tybura. Harris throws a vicious uppercut that misses, but the follow up head kick manages to land with a spinning back fist. Harris is known to be an aggressive starter and Tybura needs to be very cautious of that. Harris lands a barrage of punches on Tybura and Tybura rushes in desperation for a take down. Harris blocks it with the correct technique of pushing Tybura’s head down.

Tybura regains his composure and lands a front kick to Harris. Harris repeats his own version of the front kick and that Tybura catches and takes him to the ground. Tybura is quick to take Harris’s back and sink the hooks in. Tybura seems to improve position and Harris is not looking good. Tybura starts landing shots that seem to hurt Harris. Its just the first round, but Tybura ups the steam flattens Harris out and lands some heavy shots.

Referee Mark Smith has seen enough and stops the contest a little over 4 mins in round one taking Tybura to 5 straight wins and 3 consecutive losses for The Big Ticket.

And now… the main event of the evening. Is yet another fantastic heavyweight fight between Suriname’s Rozenstruik and Brazil’s Augusto Sakai.

Referee Herb Dean would officiate this one and as per record, both the heavies prefer to knock their opponent out. Neither of the two have won via submission… ever!

Both combatants touch gloves and get onto each other's presence and strategy. The contest seems to start slowly with Rozenstruik focusing on the inside leg kick. There’s no punch thrown for the first 90 seconds and Bigi Boy Rozenstruik lands the first punch, a body shot, that immediately finds the target. Rozenstruik continues to chop the inside of Sakai’s leg. Sakai’s shots are missing the target at this point in time.

Sakai throws a huge right that misses. Bigi Boy counters with a right of his own that misses the chin but still connects on Sakai pushing him back. Rozenstruik continues chopping Sakai’s leg and clips him with a left hook that stuns Sakai. Sakai moves backwards towards the fence. Just then Rozenstruik lands a vicious right around the ear of Sakai that drops him to the canvas. Rozenstruik jumps on the opportunity and lands some huge bombs, with 1 second left on the clock, Herb Dean steps in and calls off the fight.

The entire fight showed just 16 strikes by Rozenstruik and 3 by Sakai were enough to close the contest.

Overall an entertaining event that puts the heavies in a good mix.

 For more entertaining MMA and Combat sport action, stay tuned to my articles written exclusively for Spogo News.

Catch the new episode of The Fighting G.O.A.T this week only on the IVM Podcast Network where we speak extensively on what brings the Money to the fight game.

About the author

Somesh Kamra is a professional mixed martial artist specializing in Muay Thai. He has designed many effective training programs for Superhuman Gym and the Police Academy. His knowledge of hand to hand combat is unbeaten and has been a success story for many students. Somesh Kamra is educated from the University of Gold's Gym in the field of physical fitness that includes strength training, plyometrics & cardiovascular training for muscular conditioning.

He works closely with the UFC for India and serves as the panelist for the TV Show – The Ultimate Guide to UFC and Pit Stop on Sony Sports Network.

Somesh runs India’s first combat podcast – The Fighting G.O.A.T produced exclusively by the IVM Podcast Network. 

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