A pair of featherweight newcomers faced off at UFC Paris on Saturday when William Gomis of France took on Dutch striker Jarno Errens.
Of course, being from France, Gomis would have the crowd behind him — and with a strong striking base of his own, also had a chance to get the better of the kickboxer. The promotion, meanwhile, thought highly enough of the pairing to place them on the main card at the Accor Arena in Paris.
In round one it was a feeling-out process for the first little bit. Gomis was doing a fine job landing the more efficient strikes with the body kicks. Gomis exploded it with a pair of punches and used that to close the distance and get the takedown. Gomis never passed the guard of Errens and Errens eventually worked back to his feet. A good portion of the round Errens was on his back but ended the round taking a few kicks from Gomis.
In round two both guys were opening up with their striking. Errens was coming forward and Gomis was landing and getting out of the way. Errens did stumble Gomis with a left hand and made Gomis pay by shooting landing a head kick landing clean. Gomis took it and was able to still ground Errens. Gomis let Errens back to his feet and Errens was chasing him with punches. Gomis was using good movement and getting off in angles. Gomis ducked under a punch and got a really good takedown. The momentum of Errens allowed him to pop right back up. At the end of the round, Errens landed a beautiful hip throw but Gomis won the scramble ending the round on top.
In the final round, it was a lot more kicks from Gomis. Gomis was landing a lot of leg kicks, spinning kicks to the body, and going up top. When Errens was sitting down on his punches he was landing but Gomis was landing just as hard and just as clean. Gomis tied up with Errens and dropped down to the legs getting another takedown. Gomis didn’t do anything significant with the takedown. Out of nowhere, Errens threw up a triangle that was super tight. Somehow Gomis was able to keep his composure and escaped that horrible submission and the final bell came.
William Gomis def. Jarno Errens by majority decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-29)
