At UFC Vegas 88 on Saturday, Christian Rodriguez and Isaac Dulgarian fought an extremely close three-round fight, causing a mixed reaction from the fanbase.
‘The Midwest Choppa’ Dulgarian was coming into this fight undefeated with six first-round finishes, having not seen the second round in any of his professional bouts. Rodriguez though has been building a reputation of taking undefeated fighters 0’s.
Round one was a completely dominant round for Dulgarian as he used his impressive college wrestling background, getting the fight to the ground instantaneously and hunting for submissions. Although he couldn’t quite sink in any of his submission attempts, he reigned down some heavy ground-and-pound, slicing ‘CeeRod’ open.
Without even having to see the scorecards, round one was without a doubt a 10-8 round for the 27-year-old prospect.
The following five minutes were a lot more competitive though, and Rodriguez began having more success in stuffing the takedown attempts coming his way. Despite that, it was unclear at the time who may have edged the second round.
With this being uncharted water for Dulgarian, fatigue clearly began to set in with the relentless grappling taking its toll on the Factory X product. Stuffing the takedowns became easier for Rodriguez as he began capitalizing on openings and mounting some ground offense of his own.
There were a few moments throughout the final five minutes where it looked as though Rodriguez was going to score the last-gasp finish. Dulgarian hung on though and the judges’ scorecards were needed.
Confusion around how the fight was scored
Throughout the closely contested 15-minute fight, Isaac Dulgarian accumulated over nine minutes of control time.
All three judges scored round one a 10-8 for Dulgarian, with all three judges also agreeing that Rodriguez scored a 10-8 in round three.