Cesar Almeida beats Ihor Potieria in a nasty fight

Middleweights Cesar Almeida and Ihor Potieria squared off on the preliminary card of UFC 307 on Saturday night in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Almeida, a former GLORY kickboxer, was 1-1 in his UFC run so far and was coming off a loss to Roman Kopylov. Potieria is 2-3 in his last five games and suffered his own loss to Michel “Demolidor” Pereira.

The start of the first round was a technical kickboxing bout. Potieria had a lot of success early in the fight against Almeida, which opened up some nice left hands for him. Almeida had a lot of success himself in the first round with his kicks and countering Potieria. After a few attempts, Potieria decided to mix a takedown into his grappling landing. However, Almeida showed he had worked on that part of his game after his last timeout against Kopylov.

The start of the second round didn't go well. Almeida poked Potieria in the eye, but the referee dismissed it, and moments later Almeida followed up the foul with a shot to the groin. Immediately afterwards, Almeida Potieria seemed to have pushed again without any points being deducted. The fight continued, inexplicably followed by a third eye strike, but it was not called. Potieria went back to his grappling, but Almeida managed to get back to his feet and fight himself with a tightly mounted guillotine. He was able to use it to mount Potieria and land a nasty ground-and-pound from the top position.

Most people didn't expect the middleweight pair to make it to the third round, but they were able to do it. The third round began with another eyeball, which the referee paid no attention to. The Ultimate Finger-Poking Championship was in full swing. Both fighters were extremely tired during this final round, but that was to be expected given the altitude in Salt Lake City. Ultimately, Almeida managed to gain victory through kickboxing and counteract Potieria's grappling approach. Despite about five eye pokes and a punch to the groin, Almeida did what he is known for with his kickboxing.

Almeida is now 2-1 in the UFC and can look to build on that win. He did a lot of things better compared to his last outing and made a lot of improvements that you could see in this fight. This was a big win for his MMA career at UFC 307.

Official result: Cesar Almeida defeated. Ihor Potieria by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)