LYOTO MACHIDA SPECTACULARLY brought down the curtains on MMA in 2014, by dispatching of CB Dollaway in just over a minute at UFC FN 58 in Barueri, Brazil last night.
The heavily-favoured Machida earned himself a $50,000 performance bonus thanks to a pulverising-kick to Dollaway’s midsection after just 62 seconds of action in the middleweight main event.
Machida, who was coming off a failed title-tilt against champion Chris Weidman in July, is now 3-1 since dropping down from 205lbs. The Brazilian handed Dollaway his first loss since October 2013 and remains fourth in the division’s official rankings.
In the immediate aftermath of the stunning TKO, fellow top-contender Luke Rockhold took to social media to express a desire to face Machida in the near-future which, if facilitated, would make for an intriguing contest.
In the co-main event, former bantamweight champion Renan Barao laid a difficult six months to rest by submitting Mitch Gagnon via arm-triangle at3:53 seconds of the third round. He, too, was awarded a Performance of the Night bonus.
On a night when no Fight of the Night bonus was awarded, welterweight Erick Silva also pocketed some extra Christmas money for his showing against Mike Rhodes. Silva bounced back from his defeat at the hands of Matt Brown, by rendering Rhodes unconscious – also by arm-triangle – after a mere 67 seconds of the opening stanza.
In the light-heavyweight division, Patrick Cummins recorded his third win on the bounce by thoroughly dominating Antonio Carlos Junior en route to unanimous-decision victory. Cummins is now 3-1 in 2014 and is likely to find himself mixing with a higher-calibre of opponent in the new year.
In the other main card bouts, Rashid Magomedov finished Elias Silverio by TKO with three seconds left of their lightweight encounter, while middleweight Daniel Sarafian snapped a two-fight losing-skid by bettering Antonio Dos Santos, after he was unable to continue due to a finger injury. The event began how it ended – in stunning fashion. With a second to go in the first round of the opening bout, Vitor Miranda landed a head-kick on Jake Collier before following up with a flurry of punches to win by TKO.
Miranda was awarded the evening’s fourth bonus-cheque for his efforts.
Results of UFC Fight Night 58:
- Lyoto Machida def. C.B. Dollaway. TKO (body kick & punches)
- Renan Barao def. Mitch Gagnon. Submission (arm-triangle choke)
- Patrick Cummins def. Antonio Carlos Junior. Decision (unanimous)
- Rashid Magomedov def. Elias Silvério. TKO (punches)
- Welterweight Erick Silva def. Mike Rhodes. Submission (arm-triangle choke)
- Daniel Sarafian def. Antônio dos Santos. TKO (finger injury)
Preliminary Card
- Marcos Rogério de Lima def. Igor Pokrajac. TKO (punches)
- Renato Moicano def. Tom Niinimäki. Submission (rear-naked choke)
- Hacran Dias def. Darren Elkins. Decision (unanimous)
- Leandro Issa def. Ulka Sasaki. Submission (neck crank)
- Tim Means def. Márcio Alexandre. Decision (split)
- Vitor Miranda def. Jake Collier. TKO (head kick & punches)