Former CES bantamweight champion Tony Gravely looked to get back in the win column at UFC Las Vegas, when he took on Contender Series alum Victory Henry.
Gravely had a two-fight win streak snapped in his last outing, against Javid Basharat, while Henry was also coming off a loss— to veteran Raphael Assuncao.
Gravely began the fight the slightly quicker of the two, catching Henry with a well timed leg kick knocking him to the floor due to being unbalanced. Henry managed to find his feet not long after though and caught Gravely with a front kick to the body as the latter was coming in. It took just over a minute and a half for Gravely to attempt a level change, but unfortunately for him it didn’t pay off. Shortly after he attempted another takedown but Henry did a good job to stuff it and stay on his feet. Tony applied some fence pressure though and sunk in double under-hooks controlling Henry there for a brief moment.
From there, Henry landed his better shots with his kicks, and a nice side kick to the body found home. Attempt number three came successful for Gravely as he managed to secure the double leg takedown. With that, the bell sounded for the end of a very close opening round.
Again Victor Henry showed that his main weapon are his kicks, and a few more front kicks landed for him. He came into round two undoubtedly as the fresher of the two and his forward pressure began causing Gravely a lot of issues. Another defensive level change from Gravely paid off as he secured his second takedown, just as the tide of the fight was swinging in Henry’s favour.
Despite that, Henry made it back to his feet just moments later. Some dirty boxing from both in the pocket exuded cheers from the crowd. Henry’s forward pressure didn’t stop four minutes into round two, and showed no signs of slowing down. As Gravely attempted yet another takedown, Henry landed some heavy elbows to the side of the head of Tony Gravely. Although it looked likely that this fight would end in round two, it made it to the final round.
Relentless pace by @VictorHenryMMA! pic.twitter.com/s4DEyigMJu
— UFC (@ufc) March 11, 2023
Nothing changed in the final round; Henry pursued with more forward pressure, with Gravely trying tirelessly for takedowns. Despite that, Gravely began landing some nice combos with his hands. Both men began to look extremely fatigued halfway through round three with Henry finally taking his foot off the gas.
Although Henry was unable to carry on the pace, because of Gravely’s fatigue he couldn’t land any significant strikes of his own. Henry pounced on the leg of Tony Gravely as the latter attempted another takedown and looked to have a kneebar sunk in pretty deep. Gravely got out of the kneebar attempt though and finished the fight with a nice elbow in the clinch.
Due to how close and evenly matched this fight was, anticipating the scorecards became almost impossible. In the end, it was Victor Henry taking a split decision victory, improving to 2-1 inside the octagon in the process.
Official Result: Victor Henry def. Tony Gravely by Split Decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)
