Cub Swanson beats Kron Gracie in slugfest
Cub Swanson landed straight right hands. He landed left hooks. Swanson landed uppercuts and punches to the body. Through it all, Kron Gracie, blood on his face, continued coming forward.
Gracie stalked Swanson for three rounds. And for three rounds, Swanson teed off en route to a unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) victory Saturday night in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night: Joanna vs. Waterson in Tampa, Florida. The bout earned fight-of-the-night honors.
Swanson was never in trouble and it was a relatively dominant victory. But Gracie, the latest of the legendary family to compete in UFC, pushed him — hard.
“I’m tired,” Swanson said in the postfight interview. “It takes two to put on a great fight. Hats off to him for that. He stood and fought with me the whole time.”
Gracie does a distinctive breathing exercise during open workouts in which his stomach moves in and out. Swanson joked that he wanted to test that exercise with body shots and “try to tear a hole through him.” Swanson landed some brutal punches to Gracie’s midsection without much effect.
“Those are supposed to start kicking in by now,” Swanson said he was thinking late in the fight. “What’s going on?”
Swanson landed his full arsenal for three rounds. Gracie pressured and tried to force the fight into a clinch. He rarely succeeded, though he did hit Swanson with some punches, including one that opened up a cut to the side of Swanson’s right eye in the second round. Several times Gracie got close enough to clinch and try to drag Swanson down to the ground, but it worked with only 45 seconds left in the fight. By that time, the bout was all but decided and Swanson survived.
Swanson (26-11) snapped a four-fight losing streak with the victory. The California native earned his 16th win at featherweight, tied for the second most in UFC/WEC history in that division. Swanson, 35, proved he still belongs in the UFC with the win.
Gracie (5-1) was undefeated coming in and won all of his previous five fights by submission. The California native is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace like his famous family members — the first family of MMA in the United States. Gracie, 31, is the son of legendary grappler and vale tudo fighter Rickson Gracie and nephew of former multiple time UFC champion Royce Gracie.
Welterweight: Niko Price (14-3, -150) defeated James Vick (13-5) with a first-round KO by up-kick.
The old cliché about a fighter being able to knock out an opponent from any position is trite. Except in the case of Price.
For the second straight year, Price earned one of the most creative knockouts in MMA. “The Hybrid” landed an axe kick from his back on a standing Vick to win by KO at 1:44 of the first round.
“Fighting is not a technique,” Price told Michael Bisping in his post-fight interview. “You just fight! Be a dog! Get in it!”
In July, 2018, Price knocked out Randy Brown with hammer fists from the bottom. What made it unique was that Price held up Brown’s head with his foot to frame it for his strikes. The Florida native has established himself as one of the most innovative knockout artists in the sport.
Price (14-3, 1 NC) has won two of his last three fights and three of his last five. The 30-year-old welterweight has not gone to a decision a single time in his three-year UFC career. Vick (13-5), a 32-year-old Texas native, has lost four straight. He was moving up from lightweight to welterweight for this bout.
ESPN Sports & Information: Price scored just the second up-kick knockout in UFC history. The other was Jon Fitch‘s finish of Thiago Alves in 2006. Price earned a performance-of-the-night bonus.
Strawweight: Amanda Ribas (8-1) defeated Mackenzie Dern (7-1) by unanimous decision.