A small handful of fighters were set to make their promotional debuts at UFC Vegas 104 on Saturday, with Yuneisy Duben the first, kicking off the Fight Night event against Carli Judice.
Judice had dropped a split decision to Gabriella Fernandes in her own UFC debut, then saw a February date with Juliana Miller fall through. Duben, like Judice, was a Contender Series graduate.
The fight started with both girls throwing a lot of kicks. Judice backed up Duben with a beautiful question mark kick. Not with much impact and Duben was back coming forward. Duben was known for her power and Judice wasn’t afraid to trade putting her back against the cage with a power jab. Soon after Judice landed a head kick putting Duben down and some extra shots sent the ref in. A dominant performance from Carli Judice setting back Duben in a big way.
“Coming off two losses, we really made sure we fixed the holes that we had, the holes that I had in the last two fights,” said Judice following the bout. The flyweight had actually lost on the Contender Series last year, but was signed anyway.
As for the question mark kick that finished the bout, “We’ve been working all camp. I haven’t thrown it since I was an amateur pretty much, so we thought to bring it back,” she stated.
Official Result: Carli Judice def. Yuneisy Duben by TKO (head kick), Round 1, 1:40
