In a grappling-heavy strawweight battle, Vanessa Demopoulos and Talita Alencar kicked off Saturday’s UFC Vegas 105.
It didn’t take long for the fight to hit the ground, less than 30 seconds, and when it did, Alencar was on top. Demopoulos looked cramped on the bottom, unable to escape or throw anything up off her back. On top, while Alencar was putting pressure on, the Brazilian wasn’t in position to actually land a submission. Instead, a stalemate played out until Alencar backed off, allowing Demopoulos to threaten with upkicks.
What Dempopoulos could not do was free herself or scramble to her feet. Instead, laying alongside the fence, she closed her guard, while Alencar dropped ground n’ pound sporadically, including elbows. At the end of the round, Demopoulos looked for a submission off her back, but it simply wasn’t there. Alencar took the round based off top position alone, with the ground n’ pound mixed in.
It was 90 seconds into round two when Alencar again landed a takedown, away from the fence, with plenty of time to work from half guard. Again, Demopoulos was unable to work herself free and get back up. Instead, Alencar was smothering on top, and while she didn’t land a ton of damage, she did enough to again clearly win the round, working her way into position for an arm-triangle, though she couldn’t finish before the round closed out.
It was straight back to the ground in round three, with Alencar landing some punishing hammer fists and elbows. Demopoulos had her guard closed at times again, and had little space to work with. Alencar worked her way back to an arm-triangle position, with Demopoulos nearly giving up her back. Alencar was just about in mount by the end of the round, though Demopoulos then slipped out the back. She was only on her feet for seconds before she wound up down again, 30 seconds or so still on the clock.
Vanessa Demopoulos has now lost two straight under the UFC banner, while Alencar bounces back from a loss to Stephanie Luciano in her lone fight of 2024.
Official Result: Talita Alencar def. Vanessa Demopoulos by unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27)
