Rony Mariano Bezerra unanimously nails Godofredo de Oliveira at UFC 147 – UFC News
Rony Mariano Bezerra, became the very first winner of ‘The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil featherweight’ tourney, by collecting an impressive unanimous decision over fellow countryman Godofredo de Oliveira, in a three-round bout held on June 23, 2012.
The octagon for the showdown was set up at Estadio Jornalista Felipe Drumond in Belo Horizonte, Brazil and the main fight card was headlined by the non-title five-round bout between Rich Franklin and Wanderlei Silva.
The pay-per-view, named UFC 147: Franklin vs. Silva, was co-headlined by the heavyweight non-title three-round bout between Fabricio Werdum and Mike Russow.
Rony, widely known as ‘The Jason’, was entering his career’s 14th mixed martial art bout. The young Brazilian proud has nailed seven of his opponents by submission, three by knockout and just one by decision.
Mariano basically follows the submission grappling stance of the sport and was coming from an impressive win over Reginaldo Vieira in ‘Max Fight 10’ mixed martial art promotion.
As far as the stats and experience is concerned, it was Rony who held the upper hand. In addition, Bezerra was coming from a five-bout win streak while fighting in various promotions.
His Saturday night opponent, Oliveira, was entering his career’s ninth bout with an undefeated streak. Also known as Pepey, Oliveira has never lost even a single bout and is also a submission specialist just like Rony.
With a better win and submission ratio it was expected that Oliveira might create some difficulties for Rony but this did not happen. During the first round, Rony got himself into a bit troubling scenario as Oliveira moved in and attempted to apply kimura.
Luckily, Rony was able to avoid the attempt otherwise the outcome might have been totally different. From the start of the second round, the bout was totally dominated by Mariano who replied Oliveira’s invitations promptly by stunning him with powerful jabs.
During the whole bout, Oliveira threw many below the belt shots that were duly accounted for by the bout-referee. At the end of the three-round clash, it was Rony who rose at the occasion by receiving 29-28 on all the three cards.
After the bout the triumphant and bit emotional Mariano stated, “I'm very happy to have been the first 'TUF: Brazil' winner. I had a game plan, and I was able to execute it, defending his takedowns mostly. I didn't want to risk it too much with 'Pepey' being
such a tough opponent, but I want to go back to putting on great shows like I have before.”
Bezerra has now become the very first TUF featherweight winner and has further strengthened his win streak. Pepey, on the other hand, has unfortunately received his very first career loss.
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