Almost two years ago, Aaron Jeffrey and Dalton Rosta squared off for the first time. On Friday, at PFL Chicago, they ran that fight back, with a decidedly different outcome.
It was Bellator 298 inside the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota where the pair first met two years ago. In their initial meeting, the gas tank of Aaron Jeffery carried him far and allowed him to impose his will for all fifteen minutes, earning an obvious unanimous decision win while handing Rosta his first loss as a professional fighter.
It was another full 15 minutes on Friday, where Jeffery came out and took the center of the cage, using his range to back up Rosta. The Canadian was looking to use the cage wall to clinch up a few times to wear on Rosta, but Rosta did a good job of keeping his back off the cage and escaping the clinch. He also landed a clean elbow on the exit midway through round one.
During the last two minutes, Jeffery clinched up once again, actively looking for the takedown while he also landed a few knees and short shots to the head and body.
When the bell rang in round two, both men came out quick and less than a minute in, Jeffery once again clinched up against the fence for a brief moment before Rosta freed himself. The striking of Dalton Rosta looked very sharp, and his explosive power proved very dangerous as he appeared to be landing the bigger and more damaging shots. The last minute or so of round two was pure pressure from Rosta as he then clinched up and held Jeffery against the cage, working to batter the body of Jeffery.
Earlier in the PFL Chicago Fight Week, Rosta had promised that he would not tire out later in the fight as he had in the pair’s original encounter. This stood very true as when the fight entered the third and final round, Rosta was presumably up on the score cards and came out very active. Jeffery controlled the first half of the final round after backing Rosta up into a clinch again but stayed active within that position, working the mid-section quite a bit. With about a minute left and still standing, Jeffery tried to drag Rosta to the canvas, but found no success before the two broke free and used the time remaining to score any last points, Rosta firing several heavy shots towards Jeffery in the dying seconds of the fight.
The scorecards had it split, with two judges siding with Rosta 29-28. The dissenting judge, meanwhile, gave all three rounds to Aaron Jeffery. That was all it took, however, for Dalton Rosta to advance to the PFL Middleweight World Tournament final.
Official Result: Dalton Rosta def. Aaron Jeffery by split decision (29-28, 27-30, 29-28)
