With a couple of cancellations just days out from the event (plus one with the event underway), a featherweight fight between Daniel Pineda and Tucker Lutz wound up as the main card opener at UFC San Antonio on Saturday.
Texan Pineda was returning for the first time since a 2021 match-up with Andre Fili that saw an accidental eye poke leave him unable to continue — resulting in a no contest. Following that, he’d been hit with a nine-month suspension for amphetamine use.
Lutz put Pineda on the fence early in the fight, but was unable to keep him there. They would end up back at center, but it was Lutz the aggressor, getting right in the face of Pineda, who tried to slip and roll with the punches. Pineda fired some leg kicks, then drove in on a takedown that saw the pair go from one side of the cage to the other — though Lutz stayed standing, reversed, and separated.
Pineda again fired a low kick, following by a spinning attack that missed, but a counter-punch by Pineda briefly sat Lutz down. The remainder of the round played out on the feet, with Daniel Pineda looking sharper as the fight wore on.
Early in the second, Lutz put Pineda back on the fence, but that proved to be detrimental to his cause. Pineda defended with a guillotine, eventually going to the ground. He threatend to take back before transitioning to the top, working from inside Lutz’s guard. Pineda then rolled into another guillotine attempt, and this time it was in tight! Lutz was soon forced to tap, giving Pineda a key win in his first fight in over a year.
He gets the tap!
😤 @DanielPitPineda sinking in a crafty guillotine at #UFCSanAntonio pic.twitter.com/XtO5Knvnhg
— UFC (@ufc) March 25, 2023
Official Result: Daniel Pineda def. Tucker Lutz by submission (guillotine choke), Round 2, 2:50
