It was back to light heavyweight for William Knight at UFC Vegas 69 on Saturday, where he was paired up with Poland’s Marcin Prachnio.
Both fighters entered the night looking to shake off recent losses — two straight in the case of Knight, who returned to 205 pounds after two bouts at heavyweight.
Pracnio relied on his kicks early, trying to keep the powerful Knight on the outside. The Polish fighter was executing a very deliberate game plan, and through two minutes, Knight had thrown all of one strike. This slow, calculated approach continued, with Knight firing a kick or two, but little else. Big big man was essentially stuck outside, unable to make anything happen through the first round. Pracnio’s game plan was low action, but he was still connecting with kicks on a regular basis.
Early in the second, Knight wagged his finger at Pracnio, which was the closest thing to a punch he had thrown. Knight’s leg, meanwhile, appeared damage. He finally got off a heavy leg kick, but Prachnio returned fire with a kick upstairs. Pracnio was throwing three or four kicks for every… well, Knight had really only landed the one kick. Another Pracnio kick landed as Knight hopped on his good leg. Knight fanned on a spinning kick, and heading towards the end of the second, was in single-digits in terms of offense. He finally closed the distance for a takedown attempt that was fought off. Prachnio lit up Knight’s leg some more before the end of the round.
Prachnio fired a high kick to open the third. Knight landed a low kick. The pair traded kicks. Knight landed a leg kick, Prachnio returned fire with far greater effect. Knight would struggle to mount any offense the entire fight, catching another kick but failing to capitalize on it. At one point he chose to exchange leg kicks — bad idea. Prachnio opened up at the end of the fight, firing a head kick, spinning wheel kick, and a spinning kick to the leg before the horn sounded.
Following the fight, Marcin Prachnio showed off just how swollen his foot was from firing so many kicking attacks.
Official Result: Marcin Pracnio def. William Knight by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
