Sean Brady claimed his biggest win to date, in the main event of UFC Vegas 97, as he handed Gilbert Burns his third successive loss.
The Welterweight contest was one of a numerous entertaining bouts as the promotion delivered another solid night of fights at the Apex.
Heading into the contest, Burns admitted he was ready for a 5 round war and he needed to be as the pair battle it out over 25 minutes.
It was Brady’s pressure that proved to be the difference between them, as his unrelenting work rate didn’t allow Burns to deploy his game plan.
Both men have incredible grappling prowess and although Brady established several takedowns, the American had to call upon other areas of his game to secure the victory.
The scorecards read 50-45, 50-45, 49-47 and Brady was the man with his hand raised.
In the co-main event, Natalia Silva also picked up the biggest win of her career with a unanimous decision win against Jessica Andrade.
Although spending most of the bout on the circling on the outside, Silva’s speed and movement proved to be her keys to victory. The win is now Silva’s sixth under the UFC banner and moves her substantially closer to a shot at Flyweight gold.
Steve Garcia moved to 5 straight wins with a third round stoppage over Kyle Nelson. After initially ending up with Nelson on his back, Garcia managed to position his opponent with his back against the cage before cracking down huge elbows and getting the stoppage.
Cory Durden & Matt Schnell threw serious strikes in their first round before Schnell opted to try and take the fight to the floor early in the second but got caught in an Anaconda choke and was forced to tap.
Yanal Ashmouz got himself back to winning ways and earned another valuable 15 minutes inside the cage as he defeated Trevor Peek by unanimous decision in the opening main card bout.
On the preliminary section of the card, Chris Padilla kept his perfect promotional record in tact when a brutal elbow ended his contest with Rongzhu. Isaac Dulgarian collected his second stoppage inside the UFC cage was a second round submission of Brendon Marotte. Jaqueline Amorim made light work of Vanessa Demopoulos, stopping the Greek native three and a half minutes into the fight.
Nathan Fletcher had to show resilience in order to get his hand raised in his promotional debut when he rallied from being hurt early to secure a second round submission against Zygimantas Ramaska.
There were also wins for Andre Petroski, Gabriel Santos and Andre Lima.
UFC Fight Night: Burns vs Brady Results
* Sean Brady defeats Gilbert Burns by unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 49-46)
* Natalia Silva defeats Jessica Andrade by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
* Steve Garcia defeats Kyle Nelson by TKO (elbows) at 3:59 of Round 1
* Cody Durden defeats Matt Schnell by submission (anaconda choke) at 0:29 of Round 2
* Yanal Ashmouz defeats Trevor Peek by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
* Chris Padilla defeats Rongzhu by TKO (doctor stoppage) at 4:14 of Round 2
* Isaac Dulgarian defeats Brendon Marotte by submission (arm-triangle choke) at 4:19 of Round 2
* Andre Lima defeats Felipe dos Santos by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
* Gabriel Santos defeats Yizha by unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-27)
* Jaqueline Amorim defeats Vanessa Demopoulos by submission (armbar) at 3:28 of Round 1
* Andre Petroski defeats Dylan Budka by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
* Nathan Fletcher defeats Zygimantas Ramaska by submission (arm-triangle choke) at 1:14 of Round 2
Watch highlights from the event, below:
