Japanese wrestling standout and Road to UFC bantamweight winner Rinya Nakamura was in action at UFC Singapore, paired up with Fernie Garcia.
Nakamura was an Under 23 gold medallist in freestyle wrestling in 2017, and a bronze medal winner a year later at the World Cup. For his first non-Road to UFC fight, he was looking to hand Garcia his third straight loss. Nakamura came into this fight as the biggest favourite on the card.
The fight began with Nakamura putting on a lot of forward pressure with Fernie Garcia just moving laterally. Rinya looked to cut off the Mexican and pin him down to land a big shot. Not long after, Nakamura shot for a takedown and scored it after getting deep on the single leg. The Japanese tied his legs up well but Garcia managed to get back to his feet before getting tossed back down despite having the under-hook. Nakamura then started to advance his position and transitioned his positions well. He found himself in a North South position whilst looking to pin down an arm of Garcia. Nakamura began to apply pressure after getting what seemed like a D’arce choke, but Garcia did well to squirm out of it. As the round came to an end, Nakamura looked to reign down some heavy elbows while Garcia tried to get up.
To begin round two Garcia knew he had to get back into this fight so began putting on some forward pressure with combination of strikes. It didn’t help though as Nakamura began to land counter shots and then started pressuring himself. The 28-year-old landed a few big hooks but nothing that could wobble Fernie. From there, he landed a few nice leg kicks and then exploded into a takedown. Garcia latched onto a guillotine attempt but Nakamura put the right defence in place to get through it. Unfortunately for Garcia he found himself back in the same position he finished round one in, in a North South position. Again though Nakamura transitioned well and looked to lock in a submission. He began straightening the arm of Garcia and came close to securing the straight arm bar. Garcia survived again though and was surprisingly seeing a third round.
Garcia knew he was two rounds down and so did his coach Sayif Saud, who told him to go out and win the fight. Garcia couldn’t seem to get his hands going though and Nakamura again landed a few heavy kicks. Fernie looked to land a big right hand and kick but seemingly slipped and Nakamura once again maintained top position on the ground. From there he transitioned to full mount and started looking for the head and arm triangle. Garcia decided to give his back instead of defend the submission, but Nakamura once again got him in side control. The “Hybrid” exploded into an arm bar attempt and seemed to have it locked in pretty well before Garcia did well again to break out. To finish the fight Nakamura landed a flying kick to the side of the head of Garcia but the Mexican ate it.
Official Result: Rinya Nakamura def. Fernie Garcia via Unanimous Decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27)
