Marc Diakiese kept his perfect record in check but was forced to battle through adversity on his way to a unanimous decision victory over Frankie Perez at UFC Fight Night 102 in Albany, New York.
A stand-out match-up in the preliminary portion of the event from Times Union Centre, the two Lightweights started off feeling each other out with range finding kicks and jabs until Diakiese (11-0) started timing the low kicks of Perez (10-3) and turned it into a takedown. Perez would try to get back to his feet but the young Brit would show his unbelievable strength by slamming his opponent to the mat three times before the end of the round.
A fired up Perez got back into the fight at the start of round two, landing a takedown of his own, and then staying on top for the majority of the five minutes. A hard elbow during this period opened up a big cut above the left eye of Diakiese and he seemed to be in trouble between rounds telling his corner he couldn’t see.
A nice bit of work by the cutman stopped the blood from pouring into the eye of Diakiese at the start of round three and knowing what was needed, the 23-year-old showed an excellent fight IQ by going for a quick takedown and then riding out the rest of the fight in a dominant position for a hard earned and important 29-28 victory across all judges’ scorecards.
“It’s always great to get the win, but I would have liked to have gotten the finish – that’s what I am here for, to finish,” Diakiese said post-fight. “I got caught in the second round, and my eye started bleeding and I couldn’t find my shots, so it’s just nice to shut him up.”
“I went out there to look good because that’s what I like to do. Personally, I would like to be on the London card. If Nick Hein is ready to go, then I’d like to fight him on the London card in March.”
Following the event, Hein blocked the Brit on Twitter, which could add fuel to the fire for a potential London showdown.
“Bonecrusher” is still undefeated and has now won both his UFC fights whilst Perez has now lost two of his last three fights in the promotion.
Also on the prelims portion of the card, experienced and underrated MMA veteran Gerald Meerschaert (25-8) made a statement on his UFC debut when he defeated Joe Gigliotti (7-2) with an anaconda choke.
Meerschaert was better than his opponent in all areas of the fight but excelled in the grappling where he tried to get a hold of Gigliotti’s neck on several occasions. Eventually, Meerschaert would find a Guillotine, which was smoothly rolled and transitioned into an anaconda choke for the first round win.
“It’s the best feeling of my life,” Meerschaert said after the win. “Everything out there went pretty much according to plan. I started a little slow, but as soon as I established the things we were working on in camp, everything went smooth.”
Meanwhile, both Shane Burgos and Ryan Janes impressed on their UFC debuts against tough opponents in Tiago Trator and Keith Berish respectively.
Burgos (8-0) would start as he intended to finish looking for power shots against Trator (20-6-2) who was staying out the way of the New Yorker’s power and was getting his shots in before retreating each time.
For the next two rounds, Trator would eat big shots from his opponent and would have no answer for the hard counters being landed. Burgos was always the better of the two fighters in the stand up exchanges and it showed on the judges scorecards with the American winning the fight by unanimous decision (30-26, 29-28, 29-27).
Newfoundlander Janes (9-1) would make his debut against a returning Keith Berish (5-1) in another scrappy bout.
Janes would use his superior reach to keep Berish at the end of his combinations and the jab of Janes caused damage to the eye of Berish by the end of the first round.
Despite both fighters landing big punches in the exchanges, the Canadian enough to secure the unanimous decision victory (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) and get his UFC career off to a winning start.
