A war opened up our UFC 258 card on Saturday, with Gabe Green picking up his first UFC victory over Phil Rowe.
The lone newcomer on the UFC 258 card on Saturday night was Contender Series alum, Philip Rowe. “The Fresh Prince” was forced to sit out all of 2020 after earning his UFC deal the year prior and was looking to start things off right against Gabriel Green. Who, for his part, was entering his sophomore outing inside the octagon, still in search of his first win.
One area to keep an eye on in Green vs. Rowe: Rowe’s considerable height and reach advantage.
Phil Rowe opened up quickly, putting Green on the back foot and landing combinations. Green responded back quickly with a combination of his own and a leg kick to the much taller Rowe. Rowe answered with a leg kick of his own, and a left to the body followed by a right hand upstairs. Rowe was landing cleanly, and Green quickly clinched and looked for the takedown. He secured it, however, Rowe swept and ended up in mount almost immediately. Rowe lost the mount and there was a quick scramble that saw Rowe nearly getting a triangle. Green got the fight back to the feet where he nearly secured an arm-triangle choke of his own, however, he didn’t quite have it.
The two came out firing to start round two, launching a ton of strikes including one that went below the belt. That low blow to Rowe, a kick that landed flush, halted the action. After the break, Green came out with a huge right hand that hurt Rowe. During the combination to hopefully end the fight, Green went below the belt again and caused another stop in the action. When they resumed, Green came out with lots of pressure and Rowe responded with a knee to the body and a clinch attempt. Following the clinch, Green jumped on Rowe with strikes in bunches again. Rowe then went back to his success from earlier in the fight, landing leg kicks and landing a heavy left hand that landed clean. Green then countered with leg kicks of his own, one that even dropped Rowe near the end of the round.
Green hurt Rowe again to open the third, and Rowe responded by taking the fight to the ground. Green went for a kneebar to get back to his feet, but Rowe was able to keep him down and soon moved to mount. Rowe was heavy on top and didn’t give Green any room to breathe, he didn’t land much from the top but he was able to keep Green down until the final 90 seconds of the round. Green was able to get back to the feet and actually dropped Rowe with another leg kick, and Rowe latched on to his opponent, holding on for dear life. Following a failed takedown attempt in the final seconds, we would head to the scorecards.
Gifted 🙏@GiftedGabeGreen notches his 1️⃣st UFC victory to open #UFC258. pic.twitter.com/xgKTfpk01k
— UFC (@ufc) February 14, 2021
Official Result: Gabe Green def. Phillip Rowe by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
