A near finish in the first round gave Montel Jackson a solid head start in his bout with Felipe Colares at UFC Raleigh.
Bantamweight action on the UFC Raleigh preliminary card saw Montel Jackson looking to make it three wins in a row against Felipe Colares. The bout was the fourth fight in on the Fight Night card, which went down Saturday night at the PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Montel Jackson’s reach advantage was apparent early against Colares. After a back-and-forth exchange to two clinched against the cage, with Colares defending the take down. Jackson stuck with it and took him to the mat for a moment. Colares was quickly back to his feet but again Jackson held on and dragged Colares back to the ground. Colares continued to defend and again worked back to his feet only for Jackson to land a trip and take the action back to the mat. Jackson looked for a quick submission but Colares defended, scrabbled and got back to his base. Jackson stuck with him and Colares momentarily looked for his own submission; however Jackson worked free. Jackson now looked to batter Colares against the cage and after landing a few combinations unleashed a flurry of punches that looked to have hurt Colares. Uppercuts, hooked, Colares was in a bad spot. Colares recovered but again Jackson landed a hard left that stunned him, he followed with another flurry of power shots that damaged Colares as the horn sounded to end the round.
Colares came out looking to land a knee in round two but a left cross from jackson dropped Colares. Jackson dove on top of his opponent and looked for a submission before taking mount. Colares slipped out for a moment and took Jackson’s back but Jackson spun around, swept and got back on top. They worked to their feet where Colares jumped into a standing guillotine that eventually brought Jackson to the mat. Colares looked to end it but Jackson remained calm and eventually escaped. The two returned to their feet where they worked against the cage. Jackson again got the take down and threw Colares to the mat and to started to work on position, Colares got back to his feet for a moment but as before Jackson sent him back to the mat. Jackson again sent Colares to the ground but he popped back up only for Jackson to meet him with a vicious flurry of punches that Colares absorbed. Jackson looked for one more take down but ended up in a choke attempt from Colares that he didn’t have time to work through as the round came to an end.
In the third, Colares took the middle of the cage and pressed the action but Jackson got off first and landed a left that Colares responded to with a spinning elbow. The two exchanged and again Jackson landed a stunning left, but Colares continued to move forward and this time he looked for the take down. Colares spun to Jackson’s back for a moment but Jackson defended and eventually landed his own take down on Colares. Colares was quick to work his back to the cage and got back to his feet. He quickly landed his own take down on Jackson but Jackson this time was back to his feet just as quickly, and looked to land shots on Colares against the cage again. Colares fired back but Jackson dropped levels and looked for the take down. Jackson pushed Colares to the cage and worked on position but Colares pulled guard into another guillotine attempt and squeezed with everything he had left, only to hear the horn sound to end the round and the fight.
Official Result: Jackson def. Felipe Colares by unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-25)
