Jonathan Micallef was one of six newcomers spread across five fights on Saturday’s UFC 312, where he was paired up with Kevin Jousset in preliminary card action.
A winner on Dana White’s Contender Series last year, Micallef was getting to debut at home against France’s Jousset, who was 2-1 in the promotion and coming off a loss to Bryan Battle.
Jousset began the fight controlling center cage. A good left hand and body kick from Micallef landed. Micallef firing back was forcing Jousset to retreat a bit. The body kick from Micallef was landing quite a bit, marking up the torso of Jousset. Throughout the round both guys were content on staying at kicking range, trading kicks low and high. Micallef was landing with more power however. And as much as the focus was on the body, Micallef went up high and dropped Jousset with the head kick.
A minute left Jousset seemed to be fine, but he was still taking those kicks to the body. Another nicely timed head kick by Micallef to end the round. It [artially landed but Jousset survived to the bell.
In round two a straight left from Micallef landed keeping his momentum going. Jousset went for a head kick but his release was evidently slower compared to Micallef. Micallef over and over was throwing that left kick to the body and Jousset had no answer to it. Jousset was kicking to maintain range while Micallef was kicking to end the fight or do damage. Jousset would get off a combination against the fence but wasn’t doing any effective work in space. Micallef was picking up the kicks, going to the head more and causing a loud crowd reaction. Micallef was also doing good work with the straight left and another head kick landed at the end of the round. Micallef was giving Jousset a lot of different looks even though he was throwing a lot of the same shots.
Coming into round three it was clear that Jousset needed a finish. Jousset continued to struggle keeping up with Micallef. He’d throw the body kick but when Micallef would throw he’d land with a thudding sound. You can also see the redness on the right side of Jousset’s body from all the kicks. Jousset was attempting to cut the cage off but Micallef was showing good footwork constantly circling. With a minute left Micallef and Jousset were letting loose. Micallef with more kicks and straights and Jousset trying to crowd him with volume. All the thudding and damaging blows were landed by Micallef, though Jousset kept at it until the final horn. No surprise as to the winner in this one, with newcomer Jonathan Micallef earning the nod from all three judges.
Official Result: Jonathan Micallef def. Kevin Jousset by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
