PBP Commentary

Coming up we have a middleweight MMA rules bout between rafael soares (ranked 0 p4p, 0 weight class) and Fabinho Santos (ranked 0 p4p, 0 weight class). rafael soares could well score a knockout today. He has the power to get to Fabinho Santos's chin.

soares
vs
Santos

175 cm
18
185 lbs
0 - 6 - 0

195 cm
21
187 lbs
0 - 0 - 0

BJJ Blue Belt
Decent elbows
Experienced

BJJ Blue Belt
Excellent boxer
Heavy handed

Nutrition 101

Ladies and gentlemen. This fight is 3 rounds, in the middleweight division.
Introducing the fighter to my left, fighting out of the red corner.
With a record of 0 - 6 - 0, fighting out of Rio de Janeiro, rafael soares!
And introducing the fighter to my right, fighting out of the blue corner.
With a record of 0 - 0 - 0, fighting out of Rio de Janeiro, Fabinho Santos!
The judges for this bout are Emerson Jorge, Matheus Silva and Paulo Santos.

The bell rings for round one and we are underway!
Santos tries to close the distance and clinch up against the cage but soares paws at him with a jab and circles away.
soares looks exhausted already! Oh dear, he should have come in in better shape than this!

Santos darts in and lands a nice takedown into half guard.
The fighters are pressed up against the cage, both looking to find a bit of space to work.
Santos tries to stand but his hand is stuck under soares.
Santos with a momentary lay and pray from half guard.
Santos tries to pass to full mount but soares defends it.
Santos seems very keen to just sit and control from half guard but soares does not like that idea so much and is remaining active off his back.
soares might be looking to lock onto one of his opponent's long limbs for a submission, whilst we're on the ground.
soares trying to control from the bottom.
Santos not doing much here.

soares actively working from the bottom here.

Santos is trying a forearm choke… I don't think that's going to do much at this level of the game.

That's one minute gone in the round.
Santos passes to full mount!
soares is squirming around, avoiding Santos's attempts to control the action.
Santos controlling his opponent.
soares taking shots to the head.
Santos looking to control and managing it successfully.
Santos working soares over with strikes here.

That's two minutes gone in the round.
Santos tucks in and makes sure he doesn't lose the dominant position.
The ref warns both fighters not to hold the cage as they work up against the meshing.
Santos landing shots from mount.
Santos has his opponent pinned against the cage, landing some nasty ground and pound that is really making a bit of a mess out of soares's face.
Santos landing strikes from the mount and soares is in trouble!
Santos with the ground and pound from mount.
Santos pausing momentarily but resumes with a couple of decent strikes that do a bit of damage.
Santos tucks in and makes sure he doesn't lose the dominant position.
Santos tries to control but soares wriggling away.

That's three minutes gone in the round.

Santos stands up from the dominant position, so we're back on the feet.
Santos scores with a punch to the head.

Santos scores with a takedown into soares's guard.
Santos lands a couple of decent looking shots.
soares not looking particularly offensive just at the moment.
Santos passes easily into side control. Nice work.
Santos working the head and body with strikes.
soares tries to improve position but can't.
A lull in the action here as Santos stalls from top position.
soares is positioning himself to get back to half guard.

That's four minutes gone in the round.
Santos working the ground and pound from side control.
Santos controls the position from side control.
soares is not content to let Santos control the position.
soares is trying to control Santos's posture but Santos avoids it.
And that’s the end of the round – the fighters go back to their corners.

Fabinho Santos dominated that round.
The fighters get back to their feet, the hooter sounds and we're back to the action!

Santos darts in and out, connecting with a jab.
soares keeps the fight on the outside.
Santos tries to clinch up but soares circles away and keeps his distance.
Wow, both these guys are really going for it!
Santos tries to close the distance and clinch but soares swats him to one side with an open hand palm strike and circles away.
Nice takedown defense from soares. No joy for Santos on that attempt.
Santos shoots in looking for a takedown. soares tries to sprawl out of it but Santos keeps driving through. The fighters are pinned against the cage. soares manages to get underhooks and after a bit of a struggle, circles away and we're back to standing.
soares swats away the attempt to clinch by Santos.
Santos throws a sloppy head kick and soares moves out of range easily.
Santos shoots in for a takedown. He's persisting with it as soares sprawls well. soares wins this battle and keeps the fight standing. Santos gets slowly back to his feet.
rafael soares has stuffed three takedown attempts in the round now. That's going to take a lot out of Fabinho Santos.
We've had a slow start to the round here - hopefully the action picks up.

Santos gets caught on his heels momentarily as he allows soares to score an easy takedown into full guard.
Both fighters are absolutely exhausted here.
soares trying to control the position from guard on top but Santos is wriggling around, looking for whatever he can.

That's one minute gone in the round.
Santos looking to hit a scissor sweep but soares is one step ahead there.

Santos working from the bottom, still in full guard. He's managed to get a loose triangle. soares doesn't seem to be doing much to defend here, obviously he feels comfortable in the position. soares manages to throw the legs off his shoulder and he's back into guard - no problem.
Santos trying to control the position.

soares is trying to work a guillotine from the top, or something like that? Don't know how he thinks he's going to get a finish from there.

That's two minutes gone in the round.
The crowd are getting on the fighters' backs, as the pace has dropped off in the last minute or so.
Santos wants to stand but soares is controlling the position.

The referee decides to stand the fighters back up.

Santos drops down and drives through with a powerful takedown into guard.
soares keeping moving, preventing Santos from controlling successfully.
Santos controls from within his opponent's guard.
Santos stopping the sweep attempt from soares.
soares striking off his back but it's not causing Santos any problems.

That's three minutes gone in the round.
Santos keeps in close for a moment and lands a decent shot to the side of soares's head.
soares looking to sweep here. No luck so far.
Santos controls from within his opponent's guard.
Santos keeps in close for a moment and lands a decent shot to the side of soares's head.
soares throws some sloppy strikes off his back.
soares working a defensive guard here.

The referee decides to stand the fighters back up.
Santos shoots in but doesn't get the takedown

and soares counters with a takedown into side control.
Santos is not content to let soares control the position.
Santos can't do much from the bottom here.
Fabinho Santos has got the better of the ground game so far.

That's four minutes gone in the round.
Santos tries to control the position but he's not in luck - soares easily slips into full mount!
Santos tries to hold on but soares pushes him away.
Santos is working to get back to half guard.
soares can't quite control the action as he would like just now, as Santos is looking to escape.
soares avoids the attempt from Santos to control.
soares misses with a series of strikes from mount. He'll no doubt be working on his ground and pound when he gets back to the gym.
Santos tries to reverse the position but soares maintains control.
And that’s the end of the round – the fighters go back to their corners.

rafael soares dominated that second round.
That's the end of the interval. I'm sure that seemed a lot quicker than a minute for our two fighters! Back to the action. This is the final round!

Santos looking to shoot here. He's gone for it and he's landed a takedown into mount! Oh, that's bad for soares!
Santos controlling from mount.
Santos avoids the attempt from soares to control.
Santos sitting in mount, just looking to control for the moment.
Santos with good strikes from the mount here!
Both fighters are breathing heavily.

That's one minute gone in the round.
soares takes a big shot to the head but keeps on trying to improve his position.
Santos scores with a couple of good head shots there.
Santos tucks in and makes sure he doesn't lose the dominant position.
Santos is dominating on the ground here - he's now on his opponent's back, looking to sink in the hooks. soares is in real trouble.
Will Santos go for the finish here or will he try and keep control of the position?
Oooh a big shot gets through from Santos. Many more shots like that and the referee will have to think about stepping in!
Santos connects with a series of strikes and the referee is calling for soares to escape the position.
Santos is hanging on to soares's back as he tries to escape.
Santos lands a punch that was close to the back of the head but the ref thinks it's OK.
You can see the frustration on soares's face… He knows he is in trouble unless he improves his position sooner rather than later.

That's two minutes gone in the round.
The crowd are starting to boo a lack of action.
soares wants to control his opponent's hands but Santos gets his hands free.
Santos struggling to keep hold of the position.
soares is trapped and Santos is scoring with shots to the head and body.
soares trying to control but not successfully.
soares rolls and manages to get back to half guard. Nicely done.
soares is looking to regain full guard. Not this time though.

It looks like we're going to have a standup here. Neither fighter is doing enough on the ground.
soares takes a jab right on the nose. That must have hurt but he shrugs his shoulders and looks to return the favor.
The fight stays on the outside here - Santos looks like he's thinking about clinching though.
Santos tries to close the distance and clinch but soares swats him to one side with an open hand palm strike and circles away.

That's three minutes gone in the round.

Santos decides to change it up a bit and drives through with a nice takedown into half guard.
soares has no desire to be mounted, so is trying to control. Santos is working away from the top position though.
Santos is trying to get back to his feet now but his leg is trapped.
Santos wants to take a breather but soares is having none of it.
soares manages to get to full guard.

Santos stands up from soares's guard - Santos perhaps looking for a knockout.
Santos looks for a takedown here. Will he get it? soares is fending him off so far but Santos persists. Nope, soares circles away and we're back to standing.
Santos tries to clinch there but soares circles away.
Fabinho Santos seems to be the more aggressive standup fighter in this bout.
Santos shoots in but doesn't get the takedown

and soares decides to take the opportunity to score a takedown. He's landed in Santos's guard.

That's four minutes gone in the round.
soares works a leg free and moves into half guard.
We've seen a great period of action over the last minute or so - credit to both fighters for going all out!
soares is keeping good posture, landing some ground and pound.
Santos is refusing to be controlled, as soares sits in half guard.
Santos is looking to improve his position.
Santos trying to hold on to soares's head to control him but soares postures up.
soares stops Santos from getting back to his feet.
Santos moves his hips nicely and gets into full guard.
soares makes a bit of distance and scores with some ground and pound, still in guard.

And that's the end of the fight!
I would just about give that final round to Fabinho Santos.
I think Santos has won this one but let's see whether the judges agree with me. Over to the ring announcer for the scorecards.

Ladies and gentlemen, after 3 rounds of action, we go to the scorecards for a decision.
Judge Emerson Jorge scores the fight 27:29
Judge Matheus Silva scores the fight 28:29
Judge Paulo Santos scores the fight 27:29

In favor of your winner, by unanimous decision... Fabinho Santos!