Two fighters with identical UFC records squared off in the second fight of UFC Vegas 82 when Nikolas Motta and Trey Odgen stepped into the cage.
Both fighters had lost their UFC debut, won their next fight, and then lost their most recent fight to go to 1-2 in the promotion. The winner of this fight would be on a good path at 2-2, but the loser in danger of losing their job at 1-3 in a talent-rich lightweight division. The one big difference between them was the finishing factor: Motta had finished or been finished in all of his UFC fights while Ogden had gone to decision in all of his. Whose style would win out when these two young lightweights stepped into the cage?
The fight started with a feeling out process for the first ninety seconds of the first round before Ogden lunged in for a failed takedown. Trey did get clinch control though for a good thirty seconds, where he did a good amount of damage with knees and short strikes. Motta tried to put heavy hands on Ogden but Trey either shot a takedown or used lateral movement to avoid every explosion of offense. Offensively, Ogden was essentially only a jab, but his long jab speared Motta frequently and did most of the damage of the round. In the final minute Ogden landed a powerful double leg into half-guard, where he closed out the round on top.
Motta had more success striking to start the second round, landing with his lead hand and moving forward with strikes more often. Ogden was still successful with his evasions, but Motta stuffed the first few takedowns of the round and landed more often. The jab of Ogden was still a big factor and it was hard for Motta to track him down, but by throwing out more volume, more could land for the Brazilian.
Halfway through a close round, Motta landed a hook when he trapped Ogden against the fence that caused Trey to stumble awkwardly. He seemed to recover quickly, but that big moment would loom large on the scorecards in a close round, despite the fact that Ogden made Motta’s mouth leak blood from constant jabs in this round. With forty-five seconds left Ogden landed a monster three punch combo that won him back some points. He parlayed that into his only takedown of the round and then a knee to the head when Motta stood back up right away.
A close second round meant that Ogden could have been up 20-18 going into the third round. Or it could be one round apiece, making it all to play for as the referee restarted the action for the final five minutes. Ogden got in on a single leg and dragged Motta down to open, but Motta got right back up. Trey Ogden would not be denied though and he used the clinch, another single leg, and a final switch to a double leg to land a takedown one minute into the third. Ogden straddled Motta’s legs with Nikolas’ back to the fence until Trey pivoted, dragged Motta down, and established a strong full mount. In an era in MMA where not many fighters can hold onto mount for long, it was highly impressive that Ogden did for most of the round. He stayed heavy on top and looked for the arm triangle, finally stepping off of mount to the side to finish the choke. Motta stayed calm and defended, but Ogden did not let go.
After a while of the choke being in, referee Mike Beltran began to get a bit antsy and tried to get Motta to show him he was conscious. Motta was fighting the choke and could not let go of that to give a thumbs up, so Beltran stopped the fight. Motta immediately stood up and protested but there was seemingly nothing that could be done after the finish was declared.
However everyone was surprised when the decision was announced as a no contest. Trey Ogden seemingly was on his way to a comfortable decision or finish victory, but forces outside of his control kept him from his second UFC victory. Ogden, and Paul Felder interviewing him, seemed perturbed by this turn of events.
In his post-fight interview, Trey Ogden stated his displeasure and that he has bills that need to be paid, so losing his win money due to this is a big deal. He said, “I need to get paid.” Fans will have to stay tuned to find out if the UFC brass agree to those demands, but they seem fair.
Official Result: Trey Ogden and Nikolas Motta ends in No-Contest (referee error), Round 3, 3:11
