PBP Commentary

Coming up we have a light heavyweight MMA rules bout between Mauricio Rua (ranked 0 p4p, 0 weight class) and Ninho De Souza (ranked 0 p4p, 0 weight class). There are an array of beautiful celebrities at ringside tonight! I wonder if any of them paid for their tickets.

Rua
vs
De Souza

185 cm
22
215 lbs
1 - 0 - 0

178 cm
18
205 lbs
2 - 1 - 0

BJJ Blue Belt
Good knees
KO power

BJJ Blue Belt
Brawler
Very confident

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 1 - 0 - 0, fighting out of Las Vegas, Mauricio Rua!
And introducing the fighter to my right, fighting out of the blue corner.
With a record of 2 - 1 - 0, fighting out of Las Vegas, Ninho De Souza!
The judges for this bout are Cecil Peabody, Tiny Johnson and Daniel Franklin.

The bell rings for round one and we are underway!
De Souza misses with a double jab.
Rua tries to close the distance and clinch but De Souza swats him to one side with an open hand palm strike and circles away.

De Souza gets taken down but at least he's managed to land in guard.
De Souza is working an open guard here, looking to improve his position. No doubt that will leave him open to counters but at least he's being more offensive.
Rua with a flurry of punches that miss.
Rua wants to control from the top but De Souza keeps moving.
Rua scoring with some ground and pound.
Both fighters really going for it on the ground here!
De Souza bucks up whilst keeping hold of a body lock, managing to reverse the position. Now he's in top in Rua's guard.
De Souza is sitting in guard, working some ground and pound.
De Souza landing some decent shots from guard.

De Souza stands up and waves to Rua to follow him.
De Souza fails to land with a series of punches.

De Souza closes the distance and clinches up, looking for a takedown. He shifts his weight and gets a nice trip into half guard.

That's one minute gone in the round.

Rua looking for submissions from an awkward position here.
De Souza thumps the canvas. Not on purpose obviously - he just missed Rua's head.
Rua makes his way to full guard. A much better position for Rua.
De Souza scores with a decent looking elbow strike.
De Souza lands a nice shot whilst sitting in his opponent's guard.

De Souza stands up and waves to Rua to follow him.
De Souza misses with a few strikes there.
Horrible takedown by De Souza or perhaps it was just good defense by Rua which made him look bad.
De Souza should think about turning a few of those tyres round his middle into muscle if he wants people to take him seriously as an athlete.

De Souza shoots in and bounces Rua off the cage to secure the takedown into guard.
De Souza looks gassed!
De Souza lands a nice shot whilst sitting in his opponent's guard.

That's two minutes gone in the round.
De Souza trying to control the position from guard on top but Rua is wriggling around, looking for whatever he can.

De Souza avoids a guillotine attempt easily.
De Souza throwing strikes but missing.
Rua is working the butterfly guard. He manages to land a nice scissor sweep and is now in half guard on the top. Nice move.
Rua works his foot free and advances to mount.
Rua pausing momentarily but resumes with a couple of decent strikes that do a bit of damage.
Rua has his opponent pinned against the cage, landing some nasty ground and pound that is really making a bit of a mess out of De Souza's face.
De Souza keeping his composure momentarily, calmly looking to get back to half guard.

That's three minutes gone in the round.
De Souza tries to hold on but Rua postures up.
De Souza is trying desperately to improve position.
Rua has his opponent pinned against the cage, landing some nasty ground and pound that is really making a bit of a mess out of De Souza's face.
De Souza is bucking up trying to escape but Rua cracks him with another couple of good strikes.
Rua lands a big shot there that rocks De Souza but he's holding on and managing to survive for now.
De Souza can't escape the position.
De Souza throwing punches from his back but nothing is landing.

Rua is thinking about an arm triangle here, looking to tighten it up before moving to side control. De Souza can see it coming though and defends well with a couple of strikes to the head and some good arm positioning.
Rua has been looking to land a fair amount of strikes on the ground. He might be looking to soften his opponent up in order to work for a submission.
De Souza is desperately trying to get back to half guard.

That's four minutes gone in the round.
The crowd are hurling abuse towards the fighters... You can hardly blame them though because there isn't a lot going on in the fight.
Rua blocks De Souza's feeble attempts to strike from the bottom.
Rua prevents De Souza from getting the reversal.
De Souza tries to hold on but Rua pushes him away.
Rua dominating with strikes here.
De Souza is trying desperately to improve position.
Rua fakes a shot to the body and cracks his opponent in the head. Nice ground and pound there!
De Souza wants to control but Rua is having none of it.

Rua goes for an armbar but he's fallen flat on his backside there and now De Souza is on top in guard.
And that’s the end of the round – the fighters go back to their corners.

A close round but Ninho De Souza will probably get the nod.
That's the end of the interval. I'm sure that seemed a lot quicker than a minute for our two fighters! Back to the action.

Rua showing good head movement there, avoiding the strikes from De Souza.

Rua fakes with an overhand right and moves in to clinch with De Souza, pushing him back against the cage.
Rua leaning against his opponent.

Rua manages to break the clinch.
Rua fails with a takedown attempt.

Rua closes the distance and clinches up, looking for a takedown. He shifts his weight and gets a nice trip into half guard.

Rua gets to his feet - back to striking we go!
Rua misses with a few strikes there.
No joy there for De Souza, who threw a few shots but didn't land.
De Souza keeps the fight on the outside.
De Souza throws a combination that misses

and Rua counters by moving into the clinch. Good anticipation by Rua.
Rua has hold of a leg and is looking for a trip takedown. De Souza avoids it nicely though and we remain in the clinch.
De Souza is breathing heavily.
Rua looking to stall.
Rua looking for a takedown.
That's three failed takedown attempts in the round for Mauricio Rua. That's going to take a lot out of him.
De Souza wants to push off and get back to the center of the mat but Rua has him pressed against the cage.
Rua with the Thai clinch, lands a knee to the head.

That's one minute gone in the round.
De Souza wants to break free but Rua has control.
Rua lands a right hand that snaps the head of De Souza backwards.
De Souza wants to push off and get back to the center of the mat but Rua has him pressed against the cage.
Rua changes levels and goes for a takedown here. De Souza fights it off and pushes away nicely.
De Souza fails to land with the punch combination there - jab, cross, hook, miss, miss, miss.
Rua throws a right high kick that is partially blocked by De Souza.

De Souza is rocked!
De Souza throws a series of punches but Rua avoids them all with ease.
De Souza is still on wobbly legs! Can Rua finish him?
A slapping leg kick lands for Rua.
Rua has his takedown stuffed

and De Souza counters with a nice shoot takedown that brings the fighters to the ground.
There's a bit of a scramble here and now Rua is on top in guard.
Rua passes De Souza's right leg, so he's now in half guard.
De Souza seems to have recovered his senses.
De Souza tries to get to full guard but Rua has control of the leg.
De Souza slips a foot under and gets full guard. Nice work.

That's two minutes gone in the round.
This has been an exciting period of action!
De Souza manages to sweep nicely, so he's now on top. Rua manages to get himself to full guard.
The fighters are pressed up against the cage, both looking to find a bit of space to work.
De Souza slows down the pace of the fight for a moment. He'll need to remain active if he doesn't want to see the fight stood back up.
De Souza wants to pass the guard but Rua is keeping the position.
De Souza with a couple of shots to the head there. Not particularly brutal.

Rua is rocked!
Ninho De Souza has got the better of the ground game so far.
De Souza arches his back and unloads with a massive left and a right! Rua's eyes roll back into his head, he's out cold! The ref dives in to stop the fight - wow, they were hard shots!

Ladies and gentlemen, after 2:49 of round 2, we have a winner by way of KO (Strikes). Ninho De Souza!