Former Ultimate Fighter heavyweight turned 205’er Zac Pauga was the second opponent back for two-time Cage Warriors champ Modestas Bukauskas, who had returned to the UFC earlier this year.
The pair kicked off the UFC Vegas 75 main card on Saturday, with both men entering off recent wins.
Round one began with Bukauskas looking to land a big right hand with one of his first strikes. Pauga didn’t take long though to push the pressure, and after a blitz around the perimeter of the cage, he landed a huge right hand that dropped Modestas. From there, Pauga controlled in full guard and tried to land some ground strikes. Not long after though, Bukauskas made it back to his feet while using the cage, and subsequently got the fight back to the centre of the Octagon.
Again Pauga looked to close the distance with looping strikes, but this time “The Baltic Gladiator” evaded the danger. It became clear that Bukauskas was comfortable trying to fight on the back-foot while looking for the counter shots. Pauga controlled Bukauskas against the cage for a large portion of the round, making it clear that’s where he favoured the fight. With just a minute left of the round, the two began trading big hooks with each man trying to find the finishing shot. Pauga found himself over-extending on a right hand attempt and Bukauskas slipped back and returned two huge counter rights to finish the round.
Pauga did well to make it out of round one, with the main aim in round two being to not get knocked out. Once again Bukauskas landed a few big counter punches at the beginning of round two, with Pauga looking increasingly vulnerable. Despite that, every time Pauga blitzed forward with looping strikes, he looked dangerous himself. The opposite stance match-up began to clearly favour the more technical Bukauskas, as he was finding more creative ways of landing his strikes at range. Pauga looked to close the distance with just one big strike, whereas Modestas did will to put his shots together to throw off the rhythm of Pauga. Again with just over 45 seconds left of the round, Pauga caught Bukauskas with another huge right hand, momentarily dropping the the 29-year-old.
Another surprise: somehow, we were seeing a third and final round. Going into round three, it could quite easily be 1-1 with the victor being the better man in round three. Straightaway in round three, Pauga landed another huge hook, this time coming from his lead hand. Bukauskas decided he wanted to control against the cage himself, likely giving him the chance to regain his composure. Despite him having controlled against the cage for a while, he didn’t manage to do anything with his position and only threw the occasional strike.
Moments later, Pauga reversed the position and it resulted in a breakaway from the clinch. Again Pauga looked to blitz with a big right hook, but it was defended adequately by Bukauskas. Although the opposite stance match-up seemed to be favouring Bukauskas in the opening two rounds, the Pauga blitz became difficult for Modestas to deal with. The final bell sounded and we’d somehow made it to the judges scorecards, which would likely be close and controversial. They somewhat were — Bukauskas earned a unanimous decision, but a 30-27 score was a bit of a question mark.
What a way to get the card started! 👏
⚔️ @BalticGladiator takes the W in a back-and-forth scrap as we roll on on ESPN2 / @ESPNPlus! #UFCVegas75 pic.twitter.com/mcFiP4cCL9
— UFC (@ufc) June 17, 2023
Official Result: Modestas Bukauskas def. Zac Pauga via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
