Luis Pajuelo made his octagon debut on Saturday at UFC Vegas 89, where the featherweight found himself in a tough match-up with the formidable Fernando Padilla.
Peru’s Pajuelo had won his way into the promotion via Dana White’s Contender Series last year, and was riding a five-fight win streak to start the night.
As for Padilla, Mexico’s “El Valiente” had posted a 1-1 record to start his UFC run, but was coming into Saturday night’s showdown off a loss to Canadian Kyle “The Monster” Nelson.
Come the start of Saturday’s scrap, the action got going and Padilla landed a hard outside leg kick. He was doing a good job early on, controlling the range with a series of kicks. Padilla was kicking to both the legs and the body while throwing sneaky uppercuts and knees. As Luis Pajuelo was coming forward, Padilla landed a well-placed left hand sitting Pajuelo down. Padilla landed a volley of good elbows after that, and finally locked up a standing d’arce choke, forcing Pajuelo to tap right away!
The win improves Fernando Padilla’s record to 2-1 under the UFC banner, and proves that he’s not the type of fight most newcomers would be wise to take.
Official Result: Fernando Padilla def. Luis Pajuelo by submission (standing d’arce choke), Round 1, 2:45
