Featherweight Julian Erosa looked to make it two wins in a row against Christian Rodriguez in main card action at UFC Denver on Saturday night.
“Juicy J” entered the night off a win over Ricardo Ramos, while Rodriguez had won four straight, including upsets over top prospects Raul Rosas Jr. and Cameron Saaiman.
The fight started with Rodriguez getting right to it, swinging immediately as he got into the face of Erosa with a jab and firing off low kicks. Erosa threw a couple of looping uppercuts as his opponent kept coming forward. Rodriguez landed a sneaky head kick against the cage and followed it up with some punch combinations as he continued to pressure forward.
Erosa connected with a multi-punch combination punctuated with an uppercut and raised his arms, taunting his foe. Rodriguez came right back and continued to throw varied punch combinations. Erosa landed with a couple of teeps to the body. And with two minutes left in the round he landed a solid elbow. The two men began swinging against the cage as Erosa carefully looked for his shot.
With nearly a minute left in the round, Rodriguez threw a body kick, which Erosa caught. Erosa kept the leg and tripped Rodriguez, and quickly transitioned to the back. With 30 seconds left in the round Rodriguez got out of the body triangle and into his opponent’s full guard. But Rodriguez didn’t get to posture up and left his neck low as Erosa snatched it up in a guillotine and body triangled his opponent. Mere seconds later, Rodriguez had tapped, and the blisteringly paced fight was stopped.
Dustin Poirier later gave his approval:
Gilly Gang
— The Diamond (@DustinPoirier) July 14, 2024
Official Result: Julian Erosa def. Christian Rodriguez by submission (guillotine choke), Round 1, 4:49
