PBP Commentary

Coming up we have a light heavyweight MMA rules bout between Uniesky Santaban (ranked 2768 p4p, 337 weight class) and Zhao Yu (ranked 3705 p4p, 413 weight class). Uniesky Santaban had a look across the cage there at his opponent. He definitely means business

Santaban
vs
Yu

195 cm
20
205 lbs
4 - 1 - 0

190 cm
28
214 lbs
4 - 4 - 0

BJJ Blue Belt
Excellent boxer
Cardio machine

BJJ Blue Belt
Excellent MT
Determined

Ma Balls Is Hot Clothing

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 - 1 - 0, fighting out of Sydney, Uniesky Santaban!
And introducing the fighter to my right, fighting out of the blue corner.
With a record of 4 - 4 - 0, fighting out of Las Vegas, Zhao Yu!
The judges for this bout are Fedor Mirinova, Valeri Chadov and Vladimir Khabensky.

The bell rings for round one and we are underway!

Yu fakes with an overhand right and moves in to clinch with Santaban, pushing him back against the cage.
Yu keeps control of Santaban as he tries to wriggle out of the double underhooks.
Santaban gets underhooks to prevent Yu's takedown attempt.
Yu is trying to wear down his opponent with knees to the body.
Santaban has had enough of the clinch and is looking to separate.
Santaban blocks an elbow strike from Yu.
Santaban lands with a good tight uppercut to the head.
Yu tries to throw a body punch but Santaban avoids it by throwing Yu back against the cage.
Santaban wants to push off and get back to the center of the mat but Yu has him pressed against the cage.

Yu manages to pull guard. Let's see whether he can land a sub off his back.
Yu wants to sweep but no luck.
Santaban content to stall in guard here.
Santaban continues to stall.
We've had a slow start to the round here - hopefully the action picks up.
Yu thows some rabbit punches from the bottom but they don't do any damage.

That's one minute gone in the round.
Yu wants to stand and escape but Santaban is having none of it.
Santaban not doing a lot at the moment. He'll have to show some more aggression or the fight will get stood up.
Santaban wants to stand and escape but instead Yu has hit a sweep and he's now on top in guard.

Yu stops Santaban from standing up.
The ref warns both fighters not to hold the cage as they work up against the meshing.
Santaban trying desperately to get back to his feet here but he's not having any joy at all. He's going to tire himself out if he's not careful.
Santaban manages to sweep nicely, so he's now on top. Yu manages to get himself to full guard.

That's two minutes gone in the round.
A real slowdown in the pace of the fight for a moment, as Yu holds on and takes a little breather.
Santaban trying to pass the guard but can't manage it just yet.
Yu is looking to stand back up but Santaban counters by passing into half guard. Oops... bit sloppy there by Yu.
Santaban is taking a breather. Yu says something to him but it's hard to make out. Perhaps he's telling him to get on with it and actually do something.
Yu is looking for a sweep. Santaban is wise to his cunning plan and keeps the top position.
Yu moves into full guard.

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

That's three minutes gone in the round.
Santaban ducks down and throws a hook to the body but Yu moves away.
Santaban throws the left hand but Yu avoids the punch easily.
Yu fails to land with the punch combination there - jab, cross, hook, miss, miss, miss.
Yu will need to tighten up his combinations if he doesn't want to gas himself out, swinging at thin air.
Yu rushes forward with a series of wild hooks but Santaban moves out of range and avoids them all easily.
Santaban swings wildly with a couple of big hooks

and Yu counters with a takedown into side control! That could mean trouble for Santaban!

Santaban throws Yu to one side and escapes!
Fantastic stuff here - a very entertaining period of action, which has drawn cheers from the crowd.
Yu looks to score with a combo but nothing lands.
Santaban's corner calls for a 1-2. Santaban obliges with the 1 part as he scores the single shot and moves back out of range.
Yu shoots in looking for a takedown. Santaban tries to sprawl out of it but Yu keeps driving through. The fighters are pinned against the cage. Santaban manages to get underhooks and after a bit of a struggle, circles away and we're back to standing.
Uniesky Santaban is looking to keep the fight on the feet at all costs.

Santaban lands a left and a right that send Yu crashing to the mat, dazed. Santaban thinks about following him to the mat but decides to wave him back up to his feet!

It looks like Zhao Yu has been cut.

That's four minutes gone in the round.
Santaban misses with a jab and misses with a cross straight after too.
A nice side step and Yu releases a counter shot to the body, but it doesn't find it's home.
Yu misses with a takedown attempt - Santaban sprawls well and throws a nice strike on the way out which just misses.
Uniesky Santaban has stuffed three takedown attempts in the round now. That's going to take a lot out of Zhao Yu.
Santaban lands with an overhand left.
Yu scores with a three punch combo!
Santaban looks to have improved his striking defense since last time we saw him fight.
Santaban dips to his left and cracks Yu with an uppercut!

Yu is rocked!
Santaban lands an uppercut out of nowhere! Yu falls backwards - clearly groggy! Santaban dives in and finishes the fight with more strikes for a TKO finish!

Ladies and gentlemen, after 4:31 of round 1, we have a winner by way of TKO (Strikes). Uniesky Santaban!
After winning the bout, Uniesky Santaban thanked all his fans and promised he'd do even better in his next fight. The crowd seemed to love his humility.