Kicking off the UFC Tampa card on Saturday, the final event for the promotion of 2024, was a strawweight scrap between Piera Rodriguez and Josefine Knutsson.
The fight saw two fighters on very different trajectories collide, as kickboxer Knutsson was undefeated in her professional MMA career, while Rodriguez had lost her last two bouts.
When the fight got underway it was Rodriguez who immediately took the fight to her opponent landing a flurry of punches before swinging her opponent to the ground. Knutsson got her wits about her and used the cage to walk up before she temporarily looked for a takedown. Rodriguez reversed the position in the clinch before elevating legs to get a takedown. Seconds later, Knutsson was back up. Following the pattern, Rodgriguez rushed in immediately and corralled her opponent to the fence. Knutsson finally got a bit of space and fired off her hands. Rodriguez backed off immediately by the effective shots before returning. Josefine looked confident walking forward before yet again, being returned to the ground. This time, Rodgriguez passed to side control and landed some damaging elbows and forearm strikes to end the round.
The second round Rogriguez landed a nice combination punctuated with a body kick. Knutsson looked to really be avoiding in the exchanges in close with her footwork. Piera charged in, innating a clinch and landed some knees before transitioning to the legs and going to ground. Josefine worked back up to her feet and landed a good body kick in an exchange. Piera found the clinch as Josefine gave a bit better effort but ultimately tumbled to her back in the center of the octagon. Piera landed short strikes and systematically moved from full guard to full mount. Josefine reversed the position and exploded to her feet saving herself from sustaining more potentially fight-stopping damage. Once on the feet, Josefine stifled her opponent in the clinch against the cage before Rodiguez fought back reversing the position. Rodriguez looked especially warn in the final minute of the round before dragging her opponent to the ground. Piera dripped a fair amount of blood onto the canvas before time expired as well.
As the final round started Knutsson showed measurably more caution. She threw out long punches showing 3.5″ reach advantage. Josefine landed a teep that stopped her opponent in her tracks and caused her to stumble from the impact. Piera expertly shot for a takedown after fully recovering, and Josefine desperately grabbed onto a hail-mary guillotine. Piera patiently moved to a modified mount successfully escaping the submission attempt. With half the round left to go, Piera began chipping on her opponent while controlling her posture. Knutsson inched to the cage and absorbed damage for the next minute. Rodriguez moved to full mount when Knutsson tried to cage walk to her feet forcing her opponent down where she landed damaging strikes to finish off the duration the fight.
In the post-fight main event Josefine summed up the fight perfectly saying “My wrestling was catastrophic.” A huge victory for Piera to come back after the past couple of years of results.
Official Result: Piera Rodriguez def. Josefine Knutsson by Unanimous Decision 30-27, 30-27, 30-27
