Poland’s Mateusz Rebecki was looking at the biggest name of his career at UFC St. Louis on Saturday, matched up with well-known Brazilian Carlos Diego Ferreira.
Lightweight Diego Ferriera had shared the cage with the likes of Dustin Poirier, Anthony Pettis, Mateusz Gamrot and others.
Rebecki opened the fight swinging, landing a big left hand on Ferreira early and earning some respect no doubt in the process. Rebecki added an inside leg kick, while Ferreira showed some stance switches and circled on the outside. With just over a minute in the round, Rebecki put Diego Ferreira on the canvas with a solid left hand. The Polish up-and-comer got on top, but had to contend with the black belt prowess of Ferreira.
Early in the second, it was Ferreira attacking with a leg kick, while Rebecki answered back with a hook. Inside of a minute, Rebecki shot into a takedown, and went to work on top. Diego Ferreira was active off his back and eventually pushed Rebecki off with an upkick. More trading in the feet gave way to another Rebecki takedown attempt, only this one was stuffed. As the round wore on, Ferreira appeared a step ahead, landing repeatedly with the hands and firing a kick upstairs. Rebecki was soon showing damage around the right eye, with the ref calling time to allow a doctor to check on it. The doc clearing Mateusz Rebecki to continue, they got back underway with Rebecki capitalizing on the momentum-killing pause to land a takedown.
Ferreira, however, was not accepting the position and instead reversed and go on top, hunting an arm-triangle choke as the seconds ticked away.
Round three arrived with Diego Ferreira looking to keep the pressure up. Just past a minute in, the Brazilian wobbled Rebecki, who refused to go away and fired back with leg kicks. Two minutes in, and Rebecki landed a double-leg takedown, but Ferreira was back up to his feet seconds later. And dressed back down again, only to reverse, move to side control, and mount with just under half the round still on the clock.
Rebecki would rather implausibly survive, but in the dying seconds of the round found himself on his back eating ground n’ pound again. That was enough for the ref, who waved things off with nine seconds remaining, handing Carlos Deigo Ferreira the TKO victory.
Official Result: Carlos Diego Ferreira def. Mateusz Rebecki by TKO, Round 3, 4:51
