Welterweights Randy Brown and Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos kicked off the UFC 302 main card on Saturday, with both fighters entering on unbeaten streaks.
Brown, 33, had won two straight in the UFC, most recently defeating Muslim Salikhov, while Zaleski, 37, was 2-0-1 in his last three, with the draw coming in November against Rinat Fakhretdinov.
To begin the fight, both fighters met in the center of the octagon and Brown immediately utilized his jabs to keep his opponent on the end of his reach. Dos Santos looked for the leg kicks very often and kept his guard high as he looked to parry the strikes of his opponent. Near midway thru the round, and Dos Santos landed a solid kick to the body. Randy got right back to popping the jab out and while trying to avoid a strike accidentally poked his opponent in the eye with his posting hand.
Once the two fighters continued the action, Randy began to land some real dynamic boxing combinations on the outside, stinging his opponent. In response, Elizeu looked for a takedown, but his opponent was back to his feet in seconds. Randy continued to stay on the outside and absorbed a couple leg kicks and but continued to land that jab. With seconds left in the round, Elizeu came charging in and Randy was able to land a nice jumping knee while on his back foot.
To open the second round Dos Santos again went right back to the calf kick and caught Brown with a huge looping right hand that backed him to the fence. Randy looked for a jumping knee, but Elizeu smothered it and eventually wrestled him to the ground. Randy was able to work up to his base and try repeatedly to regain his feet, but his opponent was able to keep his hands locked and prevent him from fully returning to his feet. Eventually this saw Randy against the cage and Elizeu was finally able to get to the back to lock in a body triangle and rear naked choke.
Randy was able to defend against the rear naked choke for a sustained period before Dos Santos eventually abandoned it and tried to land some damage. With almost 30 seconds left in the round, Randy was able to reverse position and get to the back of his opponent, landing some venomous strikes and locking in a rear naked choke, of his own. The round would end with Randy still in that dominat position.
To begin the final round, Randy again popped out the jab with his opponent looking to rapidly move inside, and he was again caught by the extended fingers of Randy.
As the action resumed, Brown still looked to be just tagging his opponent with punches from the outside. Elizeu Zaleski was constantly looking for a way to strike into striking range and not really finding any success. With a couple of minutes left in the round, he was able to corral Randy to the fence and get in on a deep takedown attempt. The two fighters would stay against the cage landing damage for the next minute or so before they disengaged and got back into space. Then with 30 seconds left, after a combination from Brown, Dos Santos was able to grab a takedown and work up to the back, on the ground, scrambling and landing a couple of shots, as time expired.
On a night with seven decisions to that point, it was Randy Brown taking the win on all three scorecards. In Randy’s post-fight speech, he took the time to call out the #12 welterweight, Neil Magny, for a future fight.
Official Result: Randy Brown def. Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos by Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
