Gray Maynard got back on the winning track and Tecia Torres earned her first career stoppage victory in featured preliminary bouts Friday at The Ultimate Fighter 25 Finale in Las Vegas.
Maynard (13-6-1, 1 NC) relied on his wrestling roots to dominate Teruto Ishihara en route to a unanimous decision. Maynard is now 2-1 since dropping down to the 145-pound division. He bounced back from a frustrating loss to grappling specialist Ryan Hall, a fighter he called “a coward” for his unwillingness to engage.
Torres improved to 9-1 as a pro by submitting Juliana Lima with a rear-naked choke in the second round of their women’s strawweight contest. This was the first time in her career, win or lose, that Torres avoided the judges’ scorecards.
Torres’s fiancée, UFC women’s bantamweight contender Raquel Pennington, was in her corner supplying coaching advice. The two fighters live together, train together and Pennington feels Torres has the ability to finish her opponents more frequently going forward.
James Krause beat TUF 25 castmate Tom Gallicchio, Angela Hill topped Ashley Yoder, and C.B. Dollaway edged Ed Herman in a battle of well-rounded veterans. These three bouts all ended in unanimous decisions.
A women’s bantamweight fight between Jessica Eye and Aspen Ladd was cancelled after Ladd fell ill Friday morning.
https://twitter.com/AspenLaddMMA/status/883443252233359360
Videos courtesy of Sportsnet MMA contributor James Lynch. You can follow James on Twitter @LynchOnSports and subscribe to his YouTube page.
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