UFC Fight Night Tampa: Cub Swanson hands Kron Gracie the first defeat of his MMA career in a bloody co-headliner
In the co-main event at UFC Fight Night 161 in Tampa, Florida, the crowd in attendance witnessed a true dog fight between UFC veteran Cub Swanson and the present flag bearer of the Gracie family, Kron Gracie. The BJJ ace failed to take Swanson down even once and kept walking forward at his counterpart, withstanding a lot of punishment throughout the fight. In the end, Swanson had his hand raised via unanimous decision, ending Gracie's undefeated streak in MMA.
Here is how the fight unfolded:
The first round begun with Gracie throwing low front kicks and maintaining distance as to avoid getting caught. Swanson was accurate with his striking as he caught Gracie with a right. Cub kept stinging Kron with stiff jabs.
Gracie surprisingly kept pushing forward and got hit with a nasty kick. Gracie came back with a nice combination. Swanson connected to the body as the bell went for the close of round 1.
Even in the second, Gracie looked to get close and grab Cub but Swanson was being clever with his movement, and fired shots whenever Kron got close enough. Swanson busted his opponent's nose with a hard shot. Gracie finally managed to grab Swanson but he was quick to get out of Kron's grip. The fighters traded hard shots in the clinch, with Swanson inflicting maximum damage. Gracie continued with the relentless pressure on Cub and managed to catch him, opening a cut on Swanson's right eye as the round came to a close.
Gracie's strategy remained the same in the final round as he kept walking forward in-spite of taking hard shots to the head and body. The fighters went into clinch again as Gracie narrowly missed with a kick. Gracie showed amazing resilience as he kept piling the pressure on Swanson even after being hit with bombs. He started landing a few shots of his own, making Swanson uncomfortable with the pace of the fight. Swanson started swinging for the fences towards the end and landed a flurry of body shots as the final round came to an end.
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