Vicente Luque Beats dos Anjos, Rountree Jr. Destroys Daukaus

Vicente Luque defeated Rafael dos Anjos in the main event of last night’s UFC Fight Night held at the Apex facility in Las Vegas. In other battles, Khalil Rountree Jr. viciously knocked out Chris Daukaus, while Cub Swanson earned a win over Hakeem Dawodu.

Luque stepped back into the octagon for the first time since last August, when he suffered a KO loss to Geoff Neal, which provoked a brain hemorrhage. He had to undergo various tests to be cleared to fight, and many didn’t believe that the Silent Assasin would make his comeback, but he managed to do it in the best possible way.

All three judges scored in Luque’s favor, 49-46, 48-47, 48-47.

luque using a sucker/short drag (type of arm drag as per DC) to escape the front heady. Can use it to just escape or you can often straight up take the back. Super cool move. Love using it in training pic.twitter.com/VM7SRzPyqp

— Josie Aldo (@JosieAldoMMA) August 13, 2023

Though, he didn’t start the bout well, allowing the former UFC lightweight champ to impose his tempo and dictate the situation in the octagon. Luque admitted later that he wasn’t feeling comfortable in the octagon, because he was afraid of receiving a punch.

As time passed, Luque slowly began feeling more relaxed, and he took over the initiative, eventually going to the distance and posting a very important victory for the future of his career. He generated eight takedowns against RDA, his personal best, which eventually earned him a win in this bantamweight contest.

After losing to Neal and Belal Muhammad, this is a win worth gold for the Brazilian, who now has 22 wins, nine losses and one draw.

On the other hand, dos Anjos lost for the third time in the past six contests. He would previously beat Bryan Barberena via submission, lost to Rafael Fiziev, win vs. Moicano and Felder, and lose to Michael Chiesa. One of the veterans and icons of this sport now stands at 32 victories and 15 defeats.

Khalil Rountree Jr. was impressive against Chris Daukaus, who went down from the heavyweight division to light heavyweight. Rountree knocked out the rival in the first round with a hard straight left, which sent Daukaus to the floor. This was the fourth consecutive win for the 33-year-old and the fourth straight loss for Daukaus, all via KOs.

MORE KHALIL ROUNTREE VIOLENCE

https://t.co/J1Rh5f3Vxb

— 🌴ᴛʜᴇᴀʀᴛᴏꜰᴡᴀʀ🌴 (@TheArtOfWar6) August 13, 2023

Rountree is expected to get a chance to be in the main event of one of the upcoming UFC spectacles, and that bout would determine if he is ready to become a challenger. The American is now 12-5, but he didn’t have some notable victims in his CV. Daukaus needs to step up his game, otherwise, the organization could decide to release him. After an excellent start in the UFC and five KO wins in a row, he encountered big dogs, who easily dispatched him.

Cub Swanson was better than Hakeem Dawodu following a unanimous decision. He is now 29-13, and still refuses to go down, despite having 39 years. Swanson returned to the featherweight division, where he had five wins in the previous six appearances, beating guys like Darren Elkins, Daniel Pineda, or Kron Gracie and losing to Giga Chikadze.

Polyana Viana lost to Iasmin Lucindo via submission, AJ Dobson beat Tafon Nchukwi after a unanimous decision, the same as Josh Fremd against Jamie Pickett.