The UFC 167 Preliminary Card continued on Fox Sports 1 with the final four prelim bouts and featured wins by Donald Cerrone, Thales Leites, Rick Story, and Erik Perez.
Cerrone may have had one of his best performances of his career as he defeated Evan Dunham by triangle choke submission in the second round.
At the start of the fight, Cerrone connected with a strike that dropped Dunham and he went for the finish on the ground. Dunham was able to survive and get back to his feet.
They exchange strikes until the end of the round and Cerrone was able to use a sweep to get the fight to the ground in the second. After losing top position, Cerrone immediately went for a triangle choke and Dunahm would submit after being unable to get out of the submission.
Cerrone (21-6, 1NC) is in line for his seventh fight night bonus as he is the only fighter to score a submission victory on the card and he now has 14 career wins by submission.
Leites improves to 2-0 in return to UFC
Thales Leites won his fifth straight fight and second straight since returning to the UFC as he defeated Ed Herman by unanimous decision.
Leites was able to take the fight to the ground in all three rounds and have nearly ten minutes of top position on the ground. Herman struggled to get off his off his back when the fight went to the ground, but was able to defend all of the submission attempts of Leites.
The best portion of the fight for Herman would come at the beginning of the third round and he landed several strikes. He appeared to stun Leites with a left hand, but he was unable to capitalize on the strike. Leites would get the fight to the ground with two minutes left in the fight and kept it there until the final bell sounded.
Leites (22-4) has now won back to back fights since returning to the UFC earlier this year, and both wins have come by decision. Overall, he has won five fights in a row and eight of his last nine fights.
Story uses effective striking to defeat Ebersole by decision
Rick Story was able to use effective striking to hand Brian Ebersole his second straight defeat as he won by unanimous decision.
The entire first round round be on the feet with Story landing 30 strikes compared to 16 by Ebersole. During the opening round, Ebersole did attempt to get the fight to the ground on three occasions, but Story was able to stop the attempts. They continued their striking battle in the second round and a portion of the round was on the ground as Story was successful with a takedown.
As the second round was coming to a conclusion, the fighters began to brawl against the cage with both fighters landing significant strikes. They continued their striking battle in the third round and Story landed multiple leg kicks that buckled Ebersole and the action ended on the ground as the final bell sounded.
Story (16-7) won the fight by unanimous decision, with all three judges scoring the fight 30-27. He is now 3-2 in his last five fights, and two of those wins have come by unanimous decision.
Perez hands Figueroa his third straight defeat
In the opening bout of the UFC 167 prelims on Fox Sports 1, Erik Perez was able to use his takedowns to earn a decision victory over Edwin Figueroa.
After a brief stop in the action due to an accidental groin shot by Perez, he was able to take the fight to the ground for one of his eight takedowns in the fight. While being unable to get a submission, he did control the bout with his ground strikes. He continued to control the fight in the second in third rounds by setting up his takedowns with his jab. Figueroa struggled to mount much offense as he would only land 21 strikes in the fight.
The fight went to the scorecards with all three judges scoring the fight a clean sweep for Perez (14-5). He has won four of his five fights in the UFC and this is his first win in the UFC to come by decision.
UFC 167 Results:
Donald Cerrone def. Evan Dunham via submission (triangle choke) – Round 2, 3:49
Thales Leites def. Ed Herman via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Rick Story def. Brian Ebersole via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Erik Perez def. Edwin Figueroa via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Jason High def. Anthony Lapsley via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Sergio Pettis def. Will Campuzano via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Gian Villante def. Cody Donovan via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 1:22