At UFC St. Louis this Saturday, 24-year-old Chase Hooper picked up an extremely dominant, yet controversial win over Viacheslav Borshchev.
After moving up to lightweight last year Chase Hooper was heading into UFC St. Louis, looking for his third win at 155lbs after two impressive prior wins.
Standing across from him was the technical striker, Viacheslav Borshchev, who was looking to return to the win column after a draw to Nazim Sadykhov in his last outing.
Chase Hooper brutalizes Viacheslav Borshchev over two dominant rounds
‘The Dream’ was coming into this fight looking at it as a classic striker vs grappler matchup, with him holding the big advantage on the mat. Despite that, just moments into round one, the 24-year-old landed a huge right hand, dropping ‘Slava Claus’.
From there, Hooper’s grappling prowess shone through and he spent the rest of round one, reigning down heavy ground-and-pound, with the referee looking closely on several occasions whether to stop the fight.
The Russian somehow made it into the second round though, after conceding a 10-8 in the opening five minutes. After seeing so much success on the mat, Hooper went straight back to his bread and butter in round two and secured a takedown early on.
After simply transitioning to full mount, Hooper once again spent the large majority of the round landing elbows from top control, with the referee seriously considering stopping the fight.
Despite that, Keith Peterson let the fight go on, and Borshchev scrambled into an awkward position where he saw himself locked in an inverted triangle choke. Hooper then transitioned to a crucifix from behind where he then locked in a D’Arce choke.
Although the choke wasn’t fully locked in, the Russian held his hand ready to tap out. He then proceeded to tap the back of Hooper once, which Keith Peterson took as a tapout, stopping the fight controversially.
Chase Hooper calls out Paddy ‘The Baddy’ Pimblett
UFC commentators Michael Bisping and Laura Sanko hailed Hooper as a dangerous contender in the 155lb division, with the 24-year-old picking up his third win in a row, remaining undefeated at lightweight.
Following his utterly dominant performance, Hooper nonchalantly called out Paddy ‘The Baddy’ Pimblett, who is currently not booked for a fight.
“I’m not a bad stand-up guy.” Hooper joked in his Octagon interview. “Honestly yeah (I was surprised it wasn’t stopped sooner), Keith Peterson made me work for it, so did Slava.
“I think I’m moving my way up the lightweight division, there’s a certain British fella (Paddy Pimblett) at 155lbs, I didn’t really like his last performance against a legend (Tony Ferguson), I’d love that matchup in the future.” Hooper finished.
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