Junior dos Santos returned to form in a dominant showing against Ben Rothwell in the main event of a UFC Fight Night event in Zagreb, Croatia Sunday.
The former UFC heavyweight champion put on a boxing clinic in a five-round unanimous decision victory. Dos Santos was methodical, showcased some improved footwork and stuck to a game plan of picking his opponent apart. The 32-year-old made a concerted effort to attack Rothwell’s body. In fact, 42 per cent of his strikes were directed at Rothwell’s body.
In the waning seconds of the second round, dos Santos landed a thunderous overhand right and followed it with this powerful push kick to Rothwell’s midsection.
Dos Santos was coming off a TKO loss to Alistair Overeem in December. Rothwell had his four-fight winning streak snapped, putting a damper on his title aspirations.
The event was the UFC’s first trip to Croatia.
In the co-main event, Derrick Lewis knocked out one-time UFC title challenger Gabriel Gonzaga with a series of vicious right hands. Lewis improved to 6-2 in the UFC. All six of the heavyweight’s wins have been by KO/TKO. Meanwhile, Gonzaga has lost three of his last four fights.
Also on the main card, Cristina Stanciu became the first Romanian to compete in the UFC but it was in a losing effort to No. 9-ranked strawweight contender Maryna Moroz. The two 115-pounders went the distance in an entertaining three-round bout. It was Stanciu’s first career loss. Moroz, a 24-year-old Ukrainian, is now 7-1 as a pro as she bounced back from a loss to Canadian Valerie Letourneau.
In preliminary action, rising Russian lightweight Mairbek Taisumov continued his hot streak with a first-round knockout win over UFC newcomer Damir Hadzovic. Taisumov landed a perfectly placed uppercut between Hadzovic’s guard and, much like heavyweight star Mark Hunt has been known to do, he simply walked away when the punch landed.
Taisumov (25-5) improved to 5-1 in the UFC and now has four consecutive stoppage victories. Only middleweight champion Luke Rockhold has longer active streak with five straight finishes.
Mexico’s Alejandro Perez finished leg lock specialist Ian Entwistle in the first round of their bantamweight bout. The TUF Latin America winner was able to fend off a relentless attack from Entwistle and eventually land enough strikes to put the Englishman away.
Here are the complete results from UFC Zagreb:
MAIN CARD
— Junior dos Santos def. Ben Rothwell by UD
— Derrick Lewis def. Gabriel Gonzaga by KO
— Francis Ngannou def. Curtis Blaydes by TKO
— Timothy Johnson def. Marcin Tybura by UD
— Jan Blachowicz def. Igor Pokrajac by UD
— Maryna Moroz def. Cristina Stanciu by UD
PRELIMINARY CARD
— Zak Cummings def. Nicolas Dalby by UD
— Alejandro Perez def. Ian Entwistle by SUB (verbal)
— Mairbek Taisumov def. Damir Hadzovic by TKO
— Damian Stasiak def. Filip Pejic by SUB
— Lucas Martins def. Robert Whiteford by SD
— Jared Cannonier def. Cyril Asker by KO
— Bojan Velickovic def. Alessio Di Chirico by UD
