The running total of contract winners in Season 10 of Dana White’s Contender Series increased to 20 after Week 4 produced another full house of contract winners at Meta APEX.
Ireland’s Adam Darby, Mexico’s Silvestre Sanchez, USA’s Adam Livingston and Brazilian duo Gabriel Lorenco and Modestino Rodrigues all earned UFC deals after impressing Dana White with their respective performances on another action-packed Tuesday night in Las Vegas.
The featured bout of the night saw Cage Warriors welterweight contender Adam Darby deliver the perfect showcase of how to use a reach advantage as he pieced up Patrick Rivera en route to a third-round TKO victory.
Darby utilized his range early as he connected with some nasty calf kicks and ramrod jabs to establish his striking range. Rivera tried to find a way to step in and land shots of his own, but found himself being fed a steady diet of jabs from the Irishman, who kept him out of range.
Late in the round, Rivera managed to close the distance and came close to taking Darby’s back against the fence, but Darby calmly fought the hands and worked his way free, before resuming his long-range striking attack again.
After finding himself on the receiving end of Darby’s jab in Round 1, Rivera looked to beat the Irishman to the punch at the start of Round 2 as he swung for the fences in a bid to rock his man early. Undeterred, Darby continued his long-range kickboxing approach, mixing up jabs with teeps and leg kicks, while occasionally stepping in to land heavier work on the inside.
The success of Darby’s work was there for all to see by the middle of the round, with Rivera busted up and bleeding from the nose and mouth. A big short right hand connected flush as Darby started to step in and load up. The Irishman continued to land at will as he mixed knees into his attack, but got a reminder to watch his defense as Rivera landed his biggest punch of the fight as the 10-second clapper sounded.
Darby was completely in charge, and after dominating Rivera through two rounds, he pushed the pace in the third as he looked to claim a finish. And while Rivera kept going and refused to go down, referee Kerry Hatley saw the damage starting to accumulate to unacceptable levels and called the doctor into the Octagon to inspect Rivera.
Between the doctor and the referee, it was decided to call the fight, and Darby claimed his seventh straight victory, and his seventh career finish, with a hugely impressive performance.
Modestino Rodrigues must have had an early dinner reservation in town, because the Brazilian middleweight stepped into the Octagon and put his foot on the gas from the very start to blitz his way to victory in just 15 seconds against Contender Series returnee Brandon Holmes.
Rodrigues was all gas, no brakes as he charged at Holmes, throwing punches, and those punches didn’t stop until Holmes was curled up on the mat and referee Chris Tognioni had stepped in to wave off the contest.
Rodrigues ran forward, throwing piston-like straight punches in rapid-fire fashion at a retreating Holmes. Eventually, one got through and connected clean, and it sent Holmes to the mat. Rodrigues moved in, ready to continue throwing shots, but the referee intervened before he could exact any further punishment.
It gave Rodrigues the fastest win of his career in the biggest fight of career as he improved his career record to 8-1 with his fifth straight knockout victory.
The lightweights brought the action as Silvestre Sanchez and Liam McCracken battled back and forth on the feet and on the ground in an all-action contest before Sanchez finished the job with a heavy-handed finish in the third round.
The first round saw Sanchez set out his stall as he landed some heavy leg kicks and looked to close the distance to get his hands on McCracken in a bid to take the action to the mat. But, despite being able to force his opponent against the fence, he found McCracken difficult to take down, and even tougher to keep him there.
As the round wore on, McCracken started to get his timing, and began to connect with snappy jabs and follow-up shots, while also showing some smart footwork to slide back out of danger at the end of his combinations.
Sanchez had attempted to take McCracken to the mat at various points throughout the round, and he finally managed it in the closing moments as he dragged McCracken down, took his back and looked to work his way to a choke. But McCracken shook him off and got back to his feet before the round came to a close.
The second round saw Sanchez lean on his wrestling again as he took advantage of a mistake from McCracken to take him to the mat again. Briefly he had the Englishman trapped in an armbar, but McCracken refused to tap and managed to scramble his way free, before briefly taking Sanchez’s back in reply.
The action returned to the feet, and a thudding left hand landed clean on Sanchez, who responded with a grin and a shake of the head. McCracken caught Sanchez with a big shot on the way in, but Sanchez answered with a flying knee as the pair continued to trade big shots.
Sanchez kept the pressure on and, after another takedown, hammered McCracken with punches and elbows before the round came to a close.
The third round started with another takedown, as Sanchez picked up McCracken and landed him on the mat, with the Mexican landing in McCracken’s guard.
Eventually McCracken gained separation and started to load up with big shots in a bid to turn the fight in his favor, but he was met by a huge left hook from Sanchez that sent him crashing to the canvas.
Referee Kerry Hatley dived in immediately to spare McCracken any further punishment as Sanchez claimed the victory in emphatic fashion.
“The Black Mamba” Gabriel Lorenco showcased his striking power, and his all-out meanness, as he blasted his way to victory over Charlie Cleveland in their heavyweight matchup.
The bout started fast, with both men swinging for the fences in the early exchanges.
The two athletic heavyweights clearly fancied their chances of a knockout as they willingly stepped into range and unloaded bombs in the first 60 seconds of the fight, and it took each man to get a taste for the other’s power before things started to settle down. But that relative calm didn’t last long before Lorenco exploded into life once again.
A big right hand sent Cleveland down hard to the canvas. But remarkably, Cleveland somehow recovered enough to shoot for a leg. It was enough to get him back to his feet, but as Cleveland looked close to gaining separation, a nasty elbow to the side of the head sent Cleveland to the mat for a second time.
This time he didn’t get up, as Lorenco rained down a barrage of hammerfists that even the intervention of referee Chris Tognioni couldn’t initially stop.
Eventually, the official forced the pair apart, and Lorenco celebrated an emphatic first-round knockout victory.
After a first round that packed enough action to fill a full 15-minute fight, the action resumed in Round 2, with Smith adding leg kicks to his approach work as he resumed his forward pressure, while Livingston continued to work from the outside.
But, while Livingston held the advantage in Round 1, Smith seemed to have the edge in the second, with his pressure opening more opportunities to score. And it was the Syndicate MMA-trained fighter whose strikes seemed to be more effective through the second stanza.
It set things up perfectly for the final round, and Smith continued to apply educated pressure. Livingston, meanwhile, showed some neat footwork to slide out of danger, and responded with flashy strikes, and the occasional spinning backfist or back-kick.
Spurred on by his corner, Smith kept on advancing, but Livingston matched him, virtually punch for punch, through the round, and even had time to wag a finger at his opponent after stuffing Smith’s attempt at a surprise late takedown.
The final action of the fight saw a spinning tornado kick from Livingston, who ended the fight with a flourish, but it ultimately wasn’t enough to get the stoppage, as the fight went to the scorecards.
After a keenly-contested 15 minutes, the judges were called into action, and they returned a split-decision verdict, with Livingston getting the nod with scores of 29-28, 28-29, 29-28.
