A catchweight fire-fight between Luke Sanders and Nate Maness opened the UFC Vegas 15 card, and ended with Nate Maness coming out on top.
Beleaguered. Besieged. And frankly thin on paper. Any way you wanted to look at it, UFC Vegas 15 was a card that struggled to capture the imagination of fight fans, especially going down on the same night as the Tyson vs. Jones PPV spectacle.
But to those fighting on the card, none of it really mattered. After weeks and month’s worth of preparation, all that really mattered was the task at hand. For Luke Sanders and Nathan Maness, that task was to build win streaks (or in Maness’ case, extend one) in the night’s curtain-jerker.
Sanders opened the fight with some kicks, throwing to the body and to the legs of Maness. Maness landed a hard right hand as Sanders was coming in, and then a hard leg kick. Sanders shot in to get into the clinch but ate a couple of hard hooks to get there, and Maness shrugged him off and reversed position. Sanders responded with a brutal calf kick that briefly buckled Maness, and he followed up with another clinch attempt that was shrugged off. However Sanders was aggressive with his clinch attempts, and he worked on another but was thrown down by Maness. Maness briefly got Sanders back but he quickly got up and separated. The round ended with a big flurry from Sanders that appeared to hurt Maness before the bell.
Round two opened with a very aggressive Sanders, who shot in for a quick flurry and was actually rocked with a hard shot from Maness. Sanders wasn’t deterred, however, and he landed a huge combination that seemed to rock Maness. Maness stayed calm and measured and soon rocked Sanders once again. Maness dropped him with a straight right hand, and despite Sanders getting back to his feet, he was taken down and quickly submitted after Maness got the back and locked in a rear-naked-choke.
WOW! WILD finish in the second for Nate Maness!!#UFCVegas15 is LIVE not on ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/bO2v5obTRr
— UFC (@ufc) November 29, 2020
An absolutely impressive comeback win for Nate Maness.
Official Result: Nate Manes def. Luke Sanders by submission (rear-naked-choke), Round 2, 2:29
