UFC Fight Night 98 Results: Tony Ferguson Beats Up Rafael Dos Anjos In An All Out Brawl

It was not a great night for former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos as he looked to bounce back from his loss to Eddie Alvarez back in July. A split with his gym saw Rafael without his longtime coach in his corner, and as an added difficulty, his fight was going down in the thin air of Mexico City, 7000 feet above sea level. Oh yeah, and he ended up facing perhaps the best Tony Ferguson we’ve ever seen.

Gone was the dos Anjos that took the belt off Anthony Pettis with unrelenting pressure and clinchwork. In this fight, Rafael got stuck in sparring mode, and it cost him. By the third round Ferguson was loose and throwing back to back spinning back fists and reverse elbows, picking apart the former champ and bloodying his right eye. The shots that Rafael did land were literally shrugged off by Tony. He served back a punishing volume of body shots in return.

In the end, Tony Ferguson took the fight by decision with all three judges scoring it 48-47. But don’t be fooled by the score: this was a powerful performance from Ferguson that made the tough as nails dos Anjos look mortal. We’re sure Rafael will be back … hopefully with a better gameplan. As for Ferguson, we have no idea what’s next for him since there’s such a logjam for title shots. But we can’t wait to see it, whatever it is.

https://twitter.com/ZPGIFs/status/795135997252145152

Ricardo Lamas overcame his opponent Charles Oliviera showing up 10 pounds overweight, winning a back and forth fight in the second round with a guillotine choke. Lamas came out strong to start the fight but as the first round wore on, Oliviera started winning the positional scrambles and spent the final minute of the round on Ricardo’s back working a choke. If he had 5 more seconds to work, Oliveira would have won the fight — he got his arm under the neck of Lamas and was applying the squeeze just as the horn sounded.

Oliveira got right back on top of Lamas in the second round but he was a bit careless and Lamas made him pay, slapping on a guillotine that forced the Brazilian fighter to tap out at 2:13.

https://twitter.com/LegKickTKO/status/795108587114795008

Martín Bravo drops Claudio Puelles to become the Ultimate Latin America Fighter and immediately goes to celebrate with his show coach, Forrest Griffin.

Douglas Silva de Andrade knocks out Henry Briones with a picture perfect spinning back fist.

Results:
Tony Ferguson defeats Rafael dos Anjos via Decision (48-47, 48-47, 48-47)
Diego Sanchez defeats Marcin Held via Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-27)
Ricardo Lamas defeats Charles Oliveira via 2nd Round Submission (guillotine choke) (2:13 )
Martín Bravo defeats Claudio Puelles via 2nd Round TKO (body shot and punches) (1:55)
Beneil Dariush defeats Rashid Magomedov via Decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Alexa Grasso defeats Heather Jo Clark via Decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

Prelims
Erik Perez defeats Felipe Arantes via Split Decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
Joe Soto defeats Marco Beltrán via 1st Round Submission (heel hook) (1:37)
Max Griffin defeats Erick Montaño via 1st Round TKO (punches) (0:54)
Douglas Silva de Andrade defeats Henry Briones via 3rd Round KO (spinning back fist) (2:33)

Fight Pass Prelims
Sam Alvey defeats Alex Nicholson via Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Marco Reyes defeats Jason Novelli via Split Decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Enrique Barzola defeats Chris Avila via Decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-26)