On a night when the roof had already been raised countless times, the Seattle faithful were off their seats and on their feet as Rob Font turned back the clock.
UFC Fight Night: Cejudo vs Song has certainly delivered on the entertainment-front; with a whole host of nasty knockouts and slick submissions gracing the event out in Seattle.
Whilst the catchweight bout between Rob Font and Jean Matsumoto ultimately went to the judges’ scorecards, the crowd didn’t mind one bit – with the popular UFC veteran halting the Brazilian hype train with another highly impressive performance.
Rob Font halts undefeated prospect’s hype-train in Seattle
Rob Font vs Jean Matsumoto was widely expected to be a back-and-forth chess match and back-and-forth it certainly was with the fight playing out as a classic striker vs grappler matchup.
Font started out on the front foot; blitzing the Brazilian on the feet in round one as he landed several powerful jabs that snapped his opponent’s head back.
In response, Matsumoto was forced to employ his grappling skills and found some minor success, although he failed to land any meaningful damage from top position.
Round two was much of the same, with Matsumoto taking Font down at will, who in turn refused to stay still for more than a couple of seconds with the submission specialist in control.
However, in the third round, Font opened a cut on Matsumoto’s hairline with a beautiful step-in elbow and from there, the New England Cartel standout was in full control.
The judges’ scorecards ultimately read 29-28 Matsumoto, and two 29-28 cards in favor of Font – who exits the Climate Pledge Arena with the split decision victory.
Given how Font is one of the most popular fighters in the division, it’s no surprise to see both fans and fighters hailing him on social media – with Gilbert Burns leading the celebrations, “What a fight!”
Stoppage wins galore in Seattle as we build toward Cejudo vs Song
Even before Font and Matsumoto entered the octagon, it’d already been a truly fabulous night of action out in Seattle, with eight of the prior nine fights ending in some type of stoppage.
UFC Fight Night: Cejudo vs Song kicked off with a bang as Modestas Bukauskas scored a vicious first-round knockout over Raffael Cerqueira.
Nursulton Ruziboev scored a second-round knockout over Eric McConico, before UFC newcomer Austin Vanderford announced himself with a sensational ground-and-pound TKO win of his own.
Ricky Simon then sent Javid Basharat to the shadow realm, before Mansur Abdul-Malik made it five knockouts in a row – Melquizael Costa ‘ruined’ that KO streak with a crowd-pleasing submission win over Andre Fili.
Ion Cutelaba returned to the win column with an arm-triangle submission win over Ibo Aslan, before Alonzo Menifield scored a split decision win to halt Julius Walker’s hype-train.
Arguably the best knockout of the night (so far) was landed by Jean Silva, whose one-punch walk-off stoppage sent fans in the Climate Pledge Arena crowd into a Fighting Nerd frenzy.
It’s been an incredible card so far – can the momentum be carried on into the co-main and main events of the evening? Follow Bloody Elbow’s live Fight Blog for more.