UFC 306 results: Raul Rosas Jr. uses grappling heavy game plan to beat Aoriqileng in first fight at Sphere

15/09/2024 01:18

Raul Rosas Jr. has already accomplished a lot at 19 years old and now he can tout being the first winner at UFC 306 inside Sphere after picking up a decision win over Aoriqileng.

He nearly scored a finish in the opening round after securing a takedown and looking for a submission, but Aoriqileng defended well enough to get out of the bad position. Nothing came easy over the three-round fight, but repeated takedowns and ground control helped Rosas secure the victory with all the judges scoring the fight 29-28 in his favor.

"It feels amazing," Rosas said after the win. "Making history, just 19 years old. I'm just 19 years old with all these people behind me. Dana [White], it's time to sit down to talk numbers with the kid."

Rosas seemed comfortable striking early, but with less than two minutes removed in the fight he secured his first takedown to put Aoriqileng on the canvas. From there, Rosas started hammering away to the head and body with ground-and-pound to loosen up Aoriqileng's defense.

As he continued to punish Aoriqileng with his strikes, Rosas eventually advanced position to take side control and then quickly jumped into the mount. Rosas immediately hunted for a rear-naked choke after locking on the body triangle with Aoriqileng stuck in survival mode.

With the dominant position, Rosas peppered away with punches, but ran out of time in the round before he could get the finish.

On the restart, Aoriqileng successfully shrugged off a couple of early takedown attempts, but he was also wary about letting his hands go to avoid another grappling exchange with Rosas. As time passed, Aoriqileng tagged Rosas with a couple of stiff right hands that definitely got the attention of the 19-year-old prospect.

As the bantamweights continued throwing on the feet, Rosas decided for a moment to just bite down on his mouthpiece and swing heavy leather, but after he got hit by Aoriqileng a couple of times, he once again turned to his grappling. But Aoriqileng refused to hit the canvas again as he pushed Rosas off him as the fight reset in the center of the cage.

That changed almost as soon as the final round began with Rosas quickly grabbing a body lock and tossing Aoriqileng to the ground for the second time in the fight. While Rosas maintained control on top, he couldn't shred Aoriqileng's defense as easily as he did earlier in the fight so he opted to throw strikes until the final horn sounded.

It was another solid win for Rosas, although probably not the performance he wanted going to a decision with Aoriqileng as a heavy favorite on Saturday night. Ultimately, a win is a win and Rosas hopes that this latest performance secures him some top-15 competition in the near future.