Veteran bantamweight Brian Kelleher took on Cody Gibson in UFC Vegas 94‘s featured preliminary card bout.
Kelleher had a comfortable winning record for most of his UFC run until his last three losses, all by finish against top talents, brought him to an 8-8 promotional record. At age 38 he was one of the only bantamweights who could fight 36-yera-old Cody Gibson and be the elder. Despite losing the first two UFC fights of his second run with the promotion, Gibson impressed in his TUF Finale loss to Brad Katona which was ‘Fight of the Night’ for UFC 292. Coming into the bout, Gibson was the favorite, and he lived up to that by dominating Kelleher en route to a first-round finish,
Gibson began the fight with heavy punches and long kicks, marching down a retreating Kelleher until Brian was able to regain respect. One minute in, Cody ducked under a blitzing Kelleher’s arm, got to a rear body-lock, and then progressed until he got the takedown. Kelleher built up from half-guard along the fence to stand, but Gibson’s height advantage was such that he had the leverage to easily hold Brian there and work on mat returning him. When Gibson broke, he unloaded on Kelleher, avoided the counter, and then got to a strong clinch position again. On the break the second time he flash dropped Kelleher, who fought back up and jumped a guillotine which ended up with him in bottom-half. Gibson instantly worked his way to an arm-triangle choke and a beat-up Kelleher tapped, even while still holding half-guard.
With that win, Gibson saved his job, and the current high school teacher was surprisingly calm in his post-fight interview, after arguably the biggest win of his career. His cerebral approach to the game was clear as he talked Daniel Cormier through his perception of the fight, and credited training in Las Vegas with fighters like Aljamain Sterling and Patchy Mix to his success.
Official Result: Cody Gibson def. Brian Kelleher by Submission (arm-triangle choke) Round 1, 3:58
