Now a veteran of the featherweight division, Andre Fili squared off with Brazilian Lucas Almeida on the early preliminary card of UFC 296 on Saturday.
Fili had celebrated his 10 year anniversary with the company back in October, while Almeida had just 16 fights in his entire pro career, with two under the UFC banner. Both men, however, were seeking a return to the win column in Las Vegas on the final UFC card of 2023.
The fight began with Fili applying some forward pressure as he looked to make Almeida work off his back foot. “Touchy” Fili began to get creative while he tried to dance his way into range, but it didn’t throw Almeida off a beat.
The two came into striking distance and traded punches, with Andre Fili coming out on top and landing the better of the two. Shortly after, Fili landed a nice kick to the body of Almeida. Midway through the round, the Brazilian began to apply some forward pressure of his own and started landing some hard shots. The ever durable Fili carried on with his feints to try and land the perfect strike.
With just over a minute left in the round, the 33-year-old landed a huge right hand that dropped Lucas Almeida to his back. From there Fili chased him down to the ground where he landed some big ground-and-pound. Ref Jason Herzog gave Almeida every chance to re-gain his composure and surroundings, but after some more ground-and-pound, he stepped in at the right time.
Touchy Fili takes the W 💥 #UFC296 pic.twitter.com/qiCFVMBx18
— UFC (@ufc) December 17, 2023
Official result: Andre Fili def. Lucas Almeida by TKO, Round 1, 3:32
