The featured preliminary card bout at UFC Vegas 28 on Saturday saw “The Queen of Violence” Ariane Lipski return against Montana De La Rosa. At least, that was expected to be the featured prelim. Due to a medical issue suffered by middleweight Tom Breese, the fight was bumped up to open the Fight Night event’s main card instead.
The flyweight pairing saw both ladies looking to get back to the win column. Lipski, for her part, had seen a two-fight winning streak evaporate when she was finished by Antonina Shevchenko in November. De La Rosa, meanwhile, had a draw with Mayra Bueno Silva last time out, and a loss to Viviane Araujo prior to that.
With De La Rosa sporting a noticeable height and reach advantage, she fired a kick early. But Lipski, undeterred, pressed forward. De La Rosa struck next, firing off an uppercut. The American, with a wrestling base to fall back on, was doing a good job keeping Lipski at a distance by the midway point. Most of the fight had played out at center, and center is where the first takedown was landed, off a body lock by Montana De La Rosa. Lipski fired elbows from the bottom as De La Rosa worked from her guard. What she did not do was shrimp back towards the fence or scramble, allowing De La Rosa to eat up precious time on top. She began dropping some sizeable elbows before the buzzer, leaving Lipski bloody.
To open round two, Lipski came right out and landed a combo, a solid two punches hitting home. De La Rosa in turn landed a takedown, again planting Lipski on her back. This time, she worked her way back to the fence. The “Violence Queen” then looked for a leg lock that simply wasn’t there — allowing De La Rosa to move to side control. More elbows followed, and Lipski’s face was slowly becoming a veil of blood. Soon enough, De La Rosa moved to mount, and began putting the pressure on. Elbows and punches rained down until the ref finally stepped in the halt the onslaught.
Vicious GnP 😤@MontanaMarie211 is a problem on the ground!
[ #UFCVgeas28 continues on @ESPNPlus ] pic.twitter.com/8l609dxDrG
— UFC (@ufc) June 5, 2021
The win is De La Rosa’s first by KO/TKO, and one of her most memorable performances to date.
Official Result: Montana De La Rosa def. Ariane Lipski by TKO, Round 2, 4:27
