Monday, August 29, 2011

UFC 134 openers: Alcantara and Jabouin victorious in Rio

The first of 14 Brazilians to appear on the card tonight at UFC 134 in Rio de Janeiro put on a good scrap. The elder of the two, Yuri Alcantara showed a little more poise and scored well in each round to roll to a unanimous decision victory, 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28, over Felipe Arantes at UFC 134 in Brazil.

Technically, this was Alcantara's UFC debut, but he already has a Zuffa win under his belt from WEC 53 where he destroyed Ricardo Lamas via first-round knockout. His gameplan wasn't too tricky tonight. Arantes didn't possess the takedown defense to stay off his back. Alcantara (25-3, 1-0 UFC) scored five takedowns. He spent most of the time trying to improve position. Alcantara did land a nasty elbow in the second that opened a small cut around Arantes' right eye.

Alcantara also threatened for a rear-naked choke early in the third, but gave up the position seconds later when he failed to secure Arantes' lower half. Alcantara is reportedly a jiu-jitsu black belt, but appeared sloppy on most occasions when threatened for a submission or got the mount. Give him credit though, getting to those positions is impressive in itself.

Jabouin gets first UFC win

Jabouin made a successful debut at 135 pounds tonight. His kicking game was too much for Ian Loveland to handle. Jabouin landed most of the significant shots in the fight and took a split decision victory, 29-28 on two cards and 27-30 on the other.

Jabouin was particularly effective using the spinning back kick. He crushed any hopes of Loveland getting the win by also exhibiting good takedown defense.

Loveland's lost two straight. He's 1-2 with the UFC. Jabouin is 16-7 and now 2-3 with Zuffa promotions.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/UFC-134-openers-Alcantara-and-Jabouin-victoriou?urn=mma-wp6269

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