At UFC Saitama on Friday, the always quotable Teruto Ishihara returned to action, taking on the Philippines’ Rolando Dy in featherweight action. The fight was the second bout of the UFC Fight Night 117 main card, and saw Ishihara looking to bounce back from a two fight losing streak that had dropped his promotional record to 2-2-1.
Dy, meanwile, was also looking to get back in the win column after losing his UFC debut to Bruce Leeroy himself, Alex Caceres at UFC Fight Night 111 in June.
An early exchange of kicks got things off, and in a flash, Ishihara caught Dy unsuspecting just moments later with a powerful left. Dy hit the canvas, and Ishihara pounced, following up the knockdown with a number of heavy strikes. Dy hung on for dear life, somehow moving and defending enough to avoid the ref waving off the fight. With Dy pulling through, Ishihara moved for a guillotine choke, but that allowed Dy enough time to recover and make it back up. Not for long, however, as Ishihara soon had him back down, and landed a mix of punches of elbows from the top. Working from Dy’s guard, he dominated the opening minutes of the fight. Dy was unable to make his way back to his feet, and continued to take considerable damage as the round progressed.
Having escaped the round, Dy looked more tentative in the second. A low blow then connected on Ishihara, and he was given time to recover. Dy would connect with a head kick once the action resumed, but Ishihara didn’t seem phased. He then looked for a takedown, only to be denied. Dy seemed to finally find his rhythm, connecting with a left hook and several other strikes. Body strikes began to land for Dy, and he connected with another pretty left hook in the final seconds of the round.
The third saw an early knee from Dy connect to the chin of Ishihara as he went in for a takedown. While that seemed to wobble Ishihara, he shook it off admirably. Another low blow by Dy followed. This one seemed to take much more out of the Japanese fighter, who spent some time on his knees, recovering. Back in action, Dy landed yet another left, while Ishihara scored with a high kick. Dy later connected with a high kick of his own, but then, inexplicably, landed yet another low blow. The third low blow was the most egregious of all, and Ishihara went down in pain. This time, thankfully, the ref deducted a point from Dy. Once the action restarted, Ishihara immediately looked for a takedown, likely figuring low blows would be less likely if he was on top of his opponent. He got Dy down, but couldn’t keep him there.
Ultimately, the fight would go to the judge’s scorecards, with Ishihara taking the victory on all three cards.
Teruto Ishihara def. Rolando Dy by unanimous decision (28-27, 28-27, 29-27)
