Chris Gutierrez took home a split-decision victory at UFC Uruguay, snapping Geraldo de Freitas’ seven-fight winning streak in a bloody battle in Montevideo.
Coming into UFC Uruguay, Geraldo de Freitas had won seven consecutive fights. His most recent bout was his UFC debut in February. In his promotional debut, de Freitas defeated Felipe Colares via unanimous decision in Fortaleza, Brazil. That bout took place at featherweight. In Montevideo, de Freitas returned to his more common division: bantamweight.
Welcoming de Freitas back to bantamweight was 28-year-old Chirs Gutierrez. Gutierrez has fought in both WSOF and LFA, before going 1-1 in his current UFC run. The Texas-native lost his promotional debut in November of last year, before earning his first career UFC victory over Ryan MacDonald via unanimous decision in March.
Both fighters were feinting often early-on, with Gutierrez landing a couple of leg kicks in the opening minute. Gutierrez was the more aggressive, throwing a variety of strikes, but landing few of them. De Freitas struggled to find the range early, but took the center of the Octagon and became more aggressive himself midway through round one. With two minutes left, de Freitas did well to take Gutierrez down, but Gutierrez was able to escape back to his feet in seconds. De Freitas worked for another takedown late in the round, which he would also get. But, with less than thirty seconds remaining, the Brazilian was unable to turn it into anything of note.
De Freitas looked much more comfortable in striking range to open round two. But it was Gutierrez who landed a couple of leg kicks in the first minute, momentariy dropping de Freitas to the ground. Gutierrez did well to stuff another takedown attempt from de Freitas with around three minutes left in the second stanza, and responded with another low leg kick that put de Freitas on the ground once more. De Freitas quickly returned to his feet, and was able to land a takedown and take top control with two minutes remaining in round two.
De Freitas worked to take the back of Gutierrez. But Gutierrez did well to reverse position and take top control in de Freitas full guard. Wanting to get the fight back on the feet, Gutierrez backed up and attempted to land some strikes from the feet on his grounded opponent. As the round ended, Gutierrez jumped back into the guard of de Freitas, landing a quick elbow just before the horn sounded.
Potentially down on the cards, Gutierrez fired a flying knee at de Freitas which nearly landed in the first thirty seconds of round three. Another leg kick from Gutierrez dropped de Freitas to the ground. But, the fight would be stopped. Both fighters were bloodied, with a cut opening up on the forehead of Gutierrez due to an accidental clash of heads, and blood pouring from the nose of de Freitas. The fight was stopped to check on the cut on Gutierrez’s forehead, but continued with around three minutes remaining.
A nice sprawl by Gutierrez once again left de Freitas on the ground and Gutierrez on his feet. The American allowed de Freitas back to his feet, only to drop him to the ground with yet another low leg kick. The fight was back on the feet for the final 90-seconds, with both fighters throwing heavy shots and landing far more than they had been previously. They were covered in each other’s blood, winging hooks and looking for a finish, as the fight came to a close.
Result: Chris Gutierrez def. Geraldo de Freitas by split-decision (29-28×2, 27-30)
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