PBP Commentary

Coming up we have a light heavyweight MMA rules bout between Nauricio Rua (ranked 0 p4p, 0 weight class) and tee baker (ranked 0 p4p, 0 weight class). The crowd seem to be enjoying baker's choice of entrance music: dethklok. tee baker struggled to make weight for this fight. He only made it down to 207.0lbs at the first attempt and had to take the additional two hours to make the official bout weight. Let's see how much it's taken out of him. Over to our ring announcer for the fighter introductions!

Rua
vs
baker

185 cm
22
215 lbs
4 - 2 - 0

188 cm
21
209 lbs
5 - 2 - 0

BJJ Blue Belt
Counter striker
Experienced

BJJ Blue Belt
Brawler
Granite chin

Ladies and gentlemen. This fight is 3 rounds, in the light heavyweight division.
Introducing the fighter to my left, fighting out of the red corner.
With a record of 4 - 2 - 0, fighting out of Las Vegas, Nauricio Rua!
And introducing the fighter to my right, fighting out of the blue corner.
With a record of 5 - 2 - 0, fighting out of Las Vegas, tee baker!
The judges for this bout are Gwen Towbar, Robert Twigg and Tiny Johnson.

The bell rings for round one and we are underway!
Rua throws a sloppy head kick and baker moves out of range easily.
baker looks really tired already! That doesn't bode well for a good, competitive fight!

Rua has taken the fight to the clinch.
baker blocks an elbow strike from Rua.
Rua unloads a knee to the mid-section. baker lets out a prehistoric sounding urrrrgh.
Rua throws a vicious knee straight up the middle but baker blocks it with crossed arms.
Rua misses with a knee strike.
with the fighters clinched against the cage, Rua creates a bit of distance for himself and scores with a nice uppercut.

Rua gets to the clinch - let's see what his plan is here.
Rua lands with a left to the head.
Rua is pressed up against the cage. baker has hold of a leg and is looking to drag Rua down to the mat. Rua avoids the attempt though and has circled away. We're back to striking at a distance.
baker tries to clinch up
and Rua counters with a stiff right hand.

Rua drives through and clinches with baker against the cage.
baker avoiding damage as Rua throws knees to the body.
Rua landing knees to the head.

It looks like tee baker has been cut.
This has been an exciting period of action!
Rua lands a glancing elbow in the clinch.
Rua lands a knee to the head there! That was nasty!
Rua comes over the top with an elbow. That landed flush.
baker managing to block the knees to the body from Rua.
Rua trying to land knees to the body.
Rua misses with a knee to the head.
baker tries to jump guard but he falls flat on his backside. Rua smiles and moves away.

That's one minute gone in the round.

baker bobs and weaves into range and then changes levels and scores with a nice takedown into side control.
Rua bucks up and tries to throw baker off but instead baker has got his back!
The fighters are pressed up against the cage, both looking to find a bit of space to work.
Rua turns into baker and is now in his guard.
baker wants to sweep but no luck.

Rua decides he's had enough of playing guard and decides to stand. Come on baker, up you get!

Rua moves into the clinch.
Knees to the body from Rua.
baker trying to land knees to the body.
Rua lands a nice uppercut.
Rua with the Thai clinch. He's looking to land a big knee but he's not managed it this time.
Rua throws an elbow but it's blocked.
Rua scores with a knee to the head.
Rua with an attempt at a knee that misses.
Nice body punch from Rua.

baker jumps guard and drags Rua to the mat. He's obviously going to be looking for submissions off his back.

That's two minutes gone in the round.
Rua has decided he wants to stand but the closed guard of baker is proving hard to escape from.

Rua gets to his feet and steps away from his opponent.
Rua throws a head kick that misses and slips in the process. He scrambles back to his feet and the fighters circle.
Rua drops baker with a beautiful combination! baker stares up at his opponent, who ushers him back to his feet - Rua is looking for the KO!

baker is rocked!
The crowd are loving this. Great action here.

Rua pushes baker up against the cage in a clinch.
baker is still on wobbly legs! Can Rua finish him?
baker is pressed against the cage. Rua pushes back and unleashes a big elbow that really hurts baker! Two more big strikes from Rua and baker crumples to the mat and taps out furiously due to the strikes!

Ladies and gentlemen, after 2:32 of round 1, we have a winner by way of Submission (Strikes). Nauricio Rua!