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Carlos Prates made a thunderous first impression in his big-stage debut.
The 30-year-old welterweight headlined an evening of three contract winners together with his spectacular second-round walkoff knockout of Mitch Ramirez at Tuesday’s Contender Sequence occasion, which happened on the UFC APEX in Las Vegas.
Prates (17-6) was an absolute sniper towards Ramirez (7-1), taking cost from the opening bell with an array of exact putting methods. The Brazilian wore down Ramirez and landed at will with every little thing he threw, connecting on straight lefts, kicks to the pinnacle and physique, and slick knees up the center. Smelling blood, Prates wanted simply 74 seconds into Spherical 2 to topple Ramirez with one closing left hand down the pipe, notching a highlight-reel walkoff knockout and drawing comparisons to UFC legend Anderson Silva from Dana White.
“I instructed Dana after my combat, I’m right here to be the brand new welterweight star,” Prates mentioned. “I can discuss, I can win, I can knock individuals out. And guess what? I’m going to do every little thing.”
Among the many evening’s different contract winners was former JUCO nationwide champion wrestler Thomas Peterson (8-1), who bulldozed via TUF 30 heavyweight Chandler Cole (10-4) en path to a second-round submission victory.
Peterson managed the opening stanza with a gentle food regimen of elbows and punches from half guard following a pair of straightforward takedowns. The 28-year-old wrestler then constructed on that success within the second body, securing a direct takedown into aspect management, then wrenching on a brutal kimura to coax a tapout from Cole on the 1:08 mark of the spherical and earn his spot within the UFC heavyweight division.
Within the opening bout of the night, Belgian light-weight Bolaji Oki (8-1) kicked off the cardboard with a bang, steamrolling over Dylan Salvador (5-2) with a scintillating first-round knockout to safe the evening’s closing UFC contract.
Regardless of going through a veteran striker who owned kickboxing and Muay Thai wins over Giga Chikadze and Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong, Oki was undaunted. The 27-year-old prospect badly harm Salvador with a left hand to the physique, then completed off his handiwork with a ruthless barrage of punches alongside the fence, capped off by one other left hand to the physique.
The official time of the end got here at 2:46 of the opening spherical.
Within the co-main occasion, 28-year-old Brazilian middleweight Marco Tulio (10-1) could not have had the putting expertise of Yousri Belgaroui (5-3), but it surely didn’t matter.
A towering 6-foot-5 middleweight, Belgaroui confronted Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira a mixed 5 occasions over a prolonged kickboxing profession, and even defeated Pereira by way of determination in 2017 earlier than changing into coaching companions with the previous UFC middleweight champion. Tulio, nevertheless, confirmed stunning adeptness on the toes, blasting the Dutchman with laborious looping punches and repeatedly knocking out the mouthpiece of Belgaroui.
A teammate of former UFC light-weight champion Charles Oliveira, Tulio then sealed the deal within the third spherical, dragging Belgaroui down on the ground and smothering him from high management to earn a unanimous determination by way of scores of 30-27, 29-28, and 29-28.
Regardless of successful, his efficiency was not convincing sufficient to earn a UFC deal from White.
Rounding out the evening was the youngest fighter on the cardboard, 24-year-old featherweight Timothy Cuamba (7-1), who earned a hard-fought determination over Mateo Vogel (8-3) in a aggressive contest that in the end got here right down to the second spherical.
Cuamba lead the dance in Spherical 1 together with his putting, together with a nasty left hand to the physique adopted by a proper hand excessive that caught Vogel clear; nevertheless Vogel turned the tables in Spherical 3, securing a slick takedown that resulted in practically three minutes of management time on Cuamba’s again, a lot of which was spent fishing for a rear-naked choke. Ultimately, all three judges gave Cuamba the victory with unanimous 29-28 scores, favoring Cuamba’s putting in a decent second spherical, all of which was spent on the toes.
White praised Cuamba’s potential following the bout, however mentioned he didn’t imagine the American was prepared for the UFC.
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