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There were three finishes in Saturday’s UFC Qualifiers.
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Pete Rodriguez started Mike Jackson before Mana Martinez drove Brandon Davis.
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Keep scrolling to see highlights from the six games preceding the main card in Las Vegas.
Las Vegas – UFC After taking a week off to film the Fight Night event in Las Vegas for ESPN+, we’re back at Apex TV studios.
Pete Rodriguez and Mike Jackson threw slugs in the welterweight opener, with three rounds scheduled, but none of them were entirely necessary as Rodriguez closed out the show early.
Rodriguez ravaged his opponents with body shots, cracked skulls cleanly with precision punches, and floored his face with horrifying knees.
Jackson’s leg appeared to be bent back. He was unconscious and lay motionless for at least a minute.
Finally, as Jackson gradually regained his senses, the Apex crowd began to applaud.
And with him showing up in good form again, a replay of his devastating finish was replayed on the big screen.
See it here:
Jackson released a brief statement on Twitter shortly after his crushing loss.
“Well, it hurt,” he said in a post with a photo of him appearing to be receiving further treatment.
There were two other finishes in qualifying
In his next fight, Tatsuro Taira tapped CJ Vergara with a second-round armbar that transitioned from a rear-naked choke to that technique in a 129-pound catchweight bout.
See the submission here:
Joe Anderson Brito earned one of the early finishes on the reserve card with a rear-naked choke in the first round that defeated Lucas Alexander in the featherweight bout.
See the Brito triumph below.
In the penultimate match of qualifying, Jacob Marcoon overcame Nick Maximoff’s power punch in the knockdown-hit opener of the round and recovered with a strong job of his own.
Fully supported from the Octagon side by many members of the martial arts team (including MMA cult hero Nate Diaz), Maximoff filmed the action and shouted words of encouragement.
But suddenly one of his training partners said, “Why is Nick frowning?”
And it soon became clear that Maximov was battling an injury that had plagued him quite a bit.
As the match progressed, Maximov seemed to do more damage to himself as he tried to keep going despite his bad knee.
He was able to defend himself, but with Marcoon in the upper hand, the momentum changed considerably, stealing the first round and closing in the second despite Maximoff’s strong work in the first minute. It continued to haunt Californians.
By the end, Marcoon did enough to secure the win by sweeping scores of 30-27 from the three judges.
One of the best fights was saved for the end when Mana Martinez continued to punch Brandon Davis, but strangely hooked him by failing to follow up and keeping his opponent off completely. It looked like it was removed from
Between the second and third rounds, Martinez’s coach James Krause pleaded with his fighter to score.
But that finish didn’t materialize, despite Mana’s amazingly varied hitting.
In the end, Martinez won more than a decisive victory splitting the judges, but the right person won.
The UFC Fight Night qualifiers aired Saturday on ESPN+.
The women’s flyweight bout, which included Alexa Grasso and Vivian Araujo, topped the card.
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