Slava Claus was coming to town on Saturday, as lightweight Viacheslav Borshchev faced off with James Llontop as part of the UFC Vegas 96 preliminary card.
The jovial, St. Nick-nicknamed Borshchev had danced his way off-stage at Friday’s weigh-ins, and was to get back in the win column from a loss to Chase Hooper that left him at 1-1-1 in his last three fights. Llontop, meanwhile, was in search of his first UFC win.
The fight began with Borshechev immediately going to the leg with kicks. Viacheslav was able to land a teep to the body of his opponent as well. Both fighters thru single shots to start the fight and feeling out each other. About a minute in and the two men struck into the clinch. Borshchev landed a solid elbow as the two broke. Llontop was able to land a solid body punch in space moments later. Borshchev answered back with a hard leg kick. Halfway thru the round and Borshchev surged with a boxing combination that backed his opponent into the fence. Viacheslav punctuated the combo with a head kick that partially landed. Llontop was able to stay calm and use his footwork to get himself out of trouble. With about a minute in left in the round after exchanging body kicks with his foe, Borshchev countered Llontop with a huge punch and snapped back the head of his opponent.
A few moments later James landed an eye poke on Borshchev and before the ref was able to physically separate the two, James siezed the moment and pounced on his foe. And landed a clubbing shot that dropped a protesting Borshchev. A few stern warnings and a little over two minutes later and the two were back to action.
Borshchev got right back to work landing solid kicks on all levels. With under ten seconds left in the round Llontop landed a thudding shot behind the ear on his opponent which Borshchev answered with volume but nothing that landed flush.
To start the second round, Borshchev partially dropped an advancing Llontop with a jab, James was able to quickly return to his feet but ate some shots in the process. Borshchev was really starting to land on his opponent with boxing combinations and slipped a couple of punches that came back his way. Llontop was able to continue to rally back and kept landing that punch to the body. He was also able to use head movement to evade enough shots to keep him in the mix.
Midway thru the round and Viacheslav was able to make Llontop miss and counter to the body hurting his opponent. James was able to survive but continued to eat body shots from his opponent over the course of the round. With seconds left in the round, Llontop poured on the strikes and turned up the aggressiveness including some clinch work. James cut his opponent in the surge and showed he was still very much in the fight.
An instant replay between rounds would reveal that the cut on Borshchev’s head was from a clash of heads.
To begin the final round both fighters came out very aggressive as they exchanged some thudding body and leg kicks. Llontop continued to come forward and land strikes. About a minute into the round a multi-punch combination from James forced his opponent to stumble back momentarily. Llontop was really starting to work with his jab and kicks. Nearly halfway into the round and Borshchev landed an overhand that was surely one of the hardest punches of the fight. Llontop ate it and continued to move forward.
Viacheslav continued to evade with footwork and both men absolutely peppered each other’s legs. With a minute left in the round Llontop really began to surge forward with his output. Borshchev was able to answer and with 30 seconds left, unsuccessfully shot a takedown. Llontop rejected the shot and the fighters engaged in the clinch. Both fighters moved out of the clinch and into striking range, and Borshchev thru an unsuccessful rolling thunder to finish off a very exciting fight.
Official Result: Viacheslav Borshchev def. James Llontop by Split Decision (28-29, 29-28, 30-27)
