Vicente Luque and Mike Perry battled to an extremely entertaining split-decision at UFC Uruguay, with Luque extending his winning streak to six fights.
Vicente Luque was on an incredible run ahead of UFC Uruguay. He’d won his last five fights, and nine out of his last 10, in the tough welterweight division. His lone loss, dating back to December of 2015, came to 170-pound title-contender Leon Edwards at UFC London in March of 2017. In his recent run, Luque has tallied five consecutive finishes, with wins over the likes of Niko Price, Bryan Barberena, and Derrick Krantz. His bout with Mike Perry in Montevideo marked the third time he’d fought in 2019.
The aforementioned Perry had been less consistent. While he’d won two out of his last three fights, he’d also won two out of his last five, and three out of his last six. In his most recent Octagon appearance, Perry impressively defeated Alex Oliveira by unanimous decision in a Fight of the Night bonus winning performance.
Perry landed a couple of solid right hands in the first thirty seconds of the bout. Luque stayed patient and continued to work on finding the range, landing a couple shots of his own over the next minute or so. Some strong jabs and hooks opened up a small cut underneath the right eye of Perry, as the duo traded heavy strikes midway through the first round. A strong flying knee from Luque at least partially landed and forced Perry back, but not for long. Perry responded with a couple of left hooks and a combination to give himself some space.
Throughout the flurries another cut was opened just wide of Perry’s left eye, while Luque’s nose was cut open from Perry. Perry never stopped moving forward, throwing a string of several heavy hooks in the final thirty seconds of the round, sending Luque back and into the clinch. The round ended with both fighters bloodied and having positives to draw upon heading into round two.
The second stanza began with more of what we saw in the first five minutes: strong, aggressive striking from both fighters. Perry forced Luque against the cage in the clinch, and held him there for about a minute, landing an elbow as they separated. They continued to trade shots and counter each other with heavy punches, with neither man being willing to go down.
An uppercut from Perry sent Luque backward, and was followed by a couple of jabs from Perry. Luque was able to circle away from the cage, and land a combination of his own. With a minute left in the round, both fighters stood in the middle of the Octagon and showcased what a true “slugfest” is, taking and dealing damage until the round ended.
Although both fighters had clearly slowed, the duo continued to stand and strike in the opening minutes of the final round. Perry eventaully shot for a takedown two minutes into the third round, but was unable to take Luque down as he forced the Brazilian-American against the cage in the clinch. While in the clinch, the crowd began to boo, and Perry showed the crowd how he felt about their boos with a certain one-fingered hand gesture.
Back in the middle of the Octagon, Luque threw another knee at Perry, which Perry turned into a takedown. In Luque’s full guard on the ground, Perry would get caught in a guillotine submission attempt. During the squeeze of Luque’s guillotine, a ton of blood came pouring out of the various facial cuts on Perry’s face and nose. Luque worked for the choke for more than 30-seconds as Perry’s blood covered their bodies and the mat. Perry would get out of the choke, but with less than 10-seconds left, he couldn’t do anything with the position, and the fight ended.
That …. may just be a broken nose. #UFCUruguay pic.twitter.com/ocHv2EP3mU
— UFC (@ufc) August 11, 2019
Result: Vicente Luque def. Mike Perry by split-decision (29-28×2, 28-29)
Check out all of the results from UFC Uruguay here!
