Stephen “Wonderboy “Thompson and Kevin Holland clashed in the main event of UFC Orlando. Photo via UFC (Twitter)
The main event of UFC Orlando turned out to be the craziest striking match we’ve seen in years.
Welterweight veteran Stephen Thompson put on a performance of a lifetime when he clashed with the unorthodox Kevin Holland in a FOTY-candidate. None of the slick strikers were even remotely interested in grappling, resulting in a full out stand up battle.
The first rounds were even. “Wonderboy” landed the cleaner shots, but Holland had more power. However, the latter hurted his right hand somewhere in the earlier rounds, which made Thompson take over more and more. In the fourth, he landed a couple of flush liver kicks that seemed to hurt his opponent badly, before throwing clean spinning kicks to the head.
Between the fourth and the fifth, Holland’s corner threw in the towel to save their hurted fighter from taking more damage, resulting in a TKO win for “Wonderboy”.
“I had to use my timing and distance management,” 39-year-old Thompson said. “I wanted to show the UFC and the fans that Wonderboys is still here. I feel like 25.”
In the co-main event, Rafael dos Anjos showed his excellent grappling as he submitted fan favorite Bryan Barberena in the second round. In the post-fight interview he called out old foe Conor McGregor to settle their unfinished business.
Swedish Jack Hermansson had a tough night as short notice replacement Roman Dolidze was able to defeat him via a second-round TKO.
In the prelims, undefeated strawweight Yazmin Jauregui secured her second win in the promotion when she finished Istela Nunes in the second round. With the win, the highly interesting Mexican prospect moved to 10-0, with 2-0 in the UFC.