Tucker Lutz and Melsik Baghdasaryan faced off in the featured preliminary card bout at UFC Vegas 77, a featherweight scrap that found both men looking to return to the win column.
Lutz found some success with his kicks early in the opening round, landing a couple with an audible crack in the opening minute. Those kicks were keeping Baghdarsaryan at a distance, which resulted in Baghdasaryan firing back a kick or two of his own.
It was Lutz, meanwhile, who landed the first takedown of the fight, blasting in and planting Baghdasaryan, who soon had his back to the fence, looking for a way up. Lutz, however, stayed heavy on the legs, and was able to stall Baghdasaryan time and again as he tried to make it make up — which he only did in the dying seconds of the round.
Lutz opened the second with a low kick, while Baghdasaryan stayed outside, no doubt wary of the takedown. Baghdasaryan caught Lutz with a counter coming in, leading Lutz to retreat, and Melsik to chase him down, firing a bit wild but clearly aware that Lutz was compromised.
Unfortunately for Baghdasaryan, Lutz would recover — but Melsik had momentum behind him. Moments later, an unfortunate turn of events: Tucker was hit low, and staggered back, looking to the ref. As the ref moved in to call time, Baghdasaryan connected with a clean head kick. Luckily, it wasn’t full power, even if it was flush — and Lutz took only a few seconds to recover from the low blow.
Closing out the round with one more takedown, Lutz appeared to have survived a scare or two — but the second had been a much better frame for Baghdasaryan.
Round three was halted just as it got started, care of another foul by Baghdasaryan — an eye poke. When they did get going again, it was Lutz in on the legs, trapping Baghdasaryan against the fence. Melsik tried to use the cage for leverage, grabbed the cage, tried crawling away, but could not get Tucker Lutz off him. Not using a whizzer was a curious enough choice, but after Lutz took the back sitting and got one hook in, Baghdasaryan reversed and climbed out.
With two minutes remaining in the frame, however, Baghdasaryan needed to create some space. Instead, Lutz reversed, and went in on a single. Baghdasaryan dropped an elbow, and the pair jockeyed for position, ultimately making the round a fairly close one.
Come the scorecards, all three judges scored the fight for Melsik Baghdasaryan, who admitted that he “underestimated my opponent” following the fight.
29-28 across all of the scorecards 👏
🇦🇲 @Melsik_The_Gun is back in the win column! #UFCVegas77 pic.twitter.com/dRl6CP3hhf
— UFC (@ufc) July 16, 2023
Official Result: Melsik Baghdasaryan def. Tucker Lutz by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
