PBP Commentary

Coming up we have a welterweight MMA rules bout between Thiago de Souza (ranked 0 p4p, 0 weight class) and Lamont Strothers (ranked 0 p4p, 0 weight class). de Souza comes to the ring accompanied by Dry County. These two fighters really are very evenly matched on the feet - it will be fascinating to see who can assert themselves in that aspect of the fight.

de Souza
vs
Strothers

183 cm
21
177 lbs
10 - 3 - 0

183 cm
19
177 lbs
4 - 0 - 0

BJJ Purple Belt
Counter striker
KO power

BJJ Brown Belt
Counter striker
Solid chin

Ladies and gentlemen. This fight is 3 rounds, in the welterweight division.
Introducing the fighter to my left, fighting out of the red corner.
With a record of 10 - 3 - 0, fighting out of Tokyo, Thiago de Souza!
And introducing the fighter to my right, fighting out of the blue corner.
With a record of 4 - 0 - 0, fighting out of Tokyo, Lamont Strothers!
The judges for this bout are Ren Mimura, Hirohito Nitta and Kenichi Hosakawa.

The bell rings for round one and we are underway!
Strothers misses with a body shot. Nice footwork from de Souza.
Strothers looks shocked there as he takes a right hand to the temple.

Strothers clinches.
Strothers tries to pull guard but de Souza holds him up against the ropes and eventually Strothers drops back down to his feet.
Strothers stays in close to his opponent and throws a right hand to the body.
de Souza swings wildly with an uppercut but Strothers uses good head movement to avoid it.
Strothers takes a shot to the head.
Strothers has hold of a leg and is looking for a trip takedown. de Souza avoids it nicely though and we remain in the clinch.
Strothers's head jolts backwards as he takes an uppercut right on the button!
de Souza tries to land a shot to the body but it's blocked.
Strothers on the defensive, avoiding the knees to the body.
Strothers changes levels and goes for a takedown here. de Souza fights it off and pushes away nicely.
Thiago de Souza has stuffed three takedown attempts in the round now. That's going to take a lot out of Lamont Strothers.
Strothers throws a hook to the body but it doesn't connect.
de Souza tries to clinch but fails miserably

and Strothers counters with a nice double leg into guard.
de Souza is trying to control the position from the bottom.
Strothers looking to pass the guard.

That's one minute gone in the round.
Strothers throwing strikes but missing.
de Souza trying to keep a closed guard but Strothers is proving a slippery customer.
Strothers looking to pass the guard.
Strothers missing there with some ground and pound from the guard.
de Souza utilising some decent striking defenses from the guard, preventing the ground and pound.

Well, the referee has seen enough. Neither fighter is active enough on the ground so he's stood them back up.
A punch combination from Strothers misses.
de Souza throws a head kick that connects with a bit of head and a bit of hand.
de Souza is looking to take this fight into the clinch.

That's two minutes gone in the round.
The crowd are showing their displeasure at the lack of action as loud boos ring out around the arena.

Strothers shoots in for a takedown and gets it. Oh and he's advanced to full mount straight away.
Strothers throws an elbow from mount that misses. Lucky escape for de Souza because Strothers loaded up on that one.
de Souza is working to get back to half guard.
de Souza takes a big shot to the head but keeps on trying to improve his position.
Strothers punching from mount but de Souza doing a good job of avoiding damage.
de Souza is looking to improve his position but Strothers isn't that keen on the idea.
Strothers 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.
de Souza tries to hold on but Strothers postures up.

That's three minutes gone in the round.

Strothers goes for an armbar but de Souza turns quickly into his guard - lovely anticipation from de Souza.
de Souza slips effortlessly into side control - very nice.
Strothers is trying to get back to half guard.
Strothers looks to move to half guard but instead de Souza has passed into mount! Damn!
Strothers gets back to half guard.

That's four minutes gone in the round.
de Souza wants to control but Strothers is keeping him busy.
Strothers tries to roll over but de Souza keeps him under control.
de Souza content to control rather than advance.
de Souza wants to lay and pray for a moment but Strothers keeps working.
Strothers is looking to regain full guard. Not this time though.
Strothers is looking to control de Souza's leg but it's slowly edging free. Can Strothers avoid being mounted?
And that’s the end of the round – the fighters go back to their corners.

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

de Souza tries to clinch up but Strothers circles away and keeps his distance.
Strothers cracks de Souza with a hook to the jaw. Both fighters smile at eachother and high-five before getting back down to business.
de Souza misses with a wild combination.
Strothers swats away the attempt to clinch by de Souza.

de Souza clinches up with Strothers and pushes him back against the ropes.
We've had a slow start to the round here - hopefully the action picks up.
Strothers takes a knee to the side of the body.
de Souza swings away with an uppercut that misses.
Knees to the body from de Souza.
de Souza tried to land a shot to the body but connects with Strothers's elbow.
Strothers wants to break free. God knows he wants to breaaaak freeee.
A short left from de Souza.
de Souza keeps control of Strothers as he tries to wriggle out of the double underhooks.

Strothers gets control of de Souza's arms and successfully pulls guard. Strothers will no doubt be looking for submissions off his back.

That's one minute gone in the round.
Strothers trying to punch from his back but it's not doing any damage.
Strothers throws a couple of shots from the bottom but they don't land.
de Souza stands up and looks to throw the legs aside to pass to side control. Strothers swivels though and keeps the full guard.
de Souza has to be careful here, sitting in the guard of a superior BJJ player.
de Souza postures up.

Strothers looking for submissions from the bottom but instead de Souza passes into side control.
de Souza content to control the pace. The referee will try and keep them active though.

That's two minutes gone in the round.
A few boos can be heard. I'm sure they will multiply if the fighters don't pick up the pace.
Strothers regains half guard there - taking advantage of de Souza's attempt to lay and pray for a moment.
Strothers is not content to let de Souza control the position.

Strothers is looking to sinch up a guillotine here but de Souza pulls his head out easily.
de Souza prevents Strothers from improving his position.

That's three minutes gone in the round.
de Souza is taking a breather. Strothers says something to him but it's hard to make out. Perhaps he's telling him to get on with it and actually do something.
Strothers tries to roll over but de Souza keeps him under control.
de Souza controlling the pace.
Strothers gets full guard.

Strothers looking for submissions from the bottom here. Moving his hips around, possibly looking for an armbar.
de Souza stopping the sweep attempt from Strothers.

That's four minutes gone in the round.
A few boos can be heard. I'm sure they will multiply if the fighters don't pick up the pace.
Strothers trying to keep a closed guard but de Souza is proving a slippery customer.
The fighters are tangled up in the ropes here. We might need a restart if the fighters can't break free themselves.
Strothers looking to sweep here. No luck so far.
Strothers has a butterfly guard looking to sweep but de Souza has passed into side control.
de Souza trying to control the position but Strothers is working away.
The crowd thankful this round is nearly over.
Strothers trying to remain calm as de Souza controls from the top position.
And that’s the end of the round – the fighters go back to their corners.

Thiago de Souza dominated that second round.
The minute break is over - no more time for sponges and pep talks - back to the action! This is the final round!

de Souza is looking to take this fight into the clinch.
de Souza misses with a two punch combination.
Strothers throws a sloppy head kick and de Souza moves out of range easily.
de Souza swings for the body but Strothers moves out of range.
Strothers lands a slapping body shot.
Strothers throws a hard body shot but it just misses.
Strothers wants to slow de Souza down by chopping away at his legs.
We've had a slow start to the round here - hopefully the action picks up.

Excellent takedown into side control there by Strothers.
Strothers throwing shots but missing, from side control.
de Souza can't do much from the bottom here.

That's one minute gone in the round.
Strothers working the ground and pound but he's contacting the mat, not the fighter.
de Souza struggling a bit here.
Strothers works to advance to full mount. de Souza defends for a few seconds but eventually he succumbs.
de Souza is desperately trying to get back to half guard.

Strothers moves into side control, trying to work for a kimura. That looks painful! Will he finish!!?? No, de Souza has worked his arm free - good work by de Souza!

Strothers tries for an arm triangle. That looks pretty tight to me. Is this one over!?! Possibly, maybe, no Strothers has let go of the choke. Obviously it wasn't as tight as we thought!
Strothers takes a big intake of breath there - he's definitely tired.
Strothers has knee on belly momentarily but de Souza bucks him off and regains half guard.

That's two minutes gone in the round.
Strothers thows a big elbow that misses, also allowing de Souza to regain full guard.
Strothers looking to pass the guard.
de Souza working a defensive guard here.
Strothers missing there with some ground and pound from the guard.
Strothers pressing down on his opponent's thigh, looking to pass guard. de Souza is keeping the position for now.
Strothers trying to control the position from guard on top but de Souza is wriggling around, looking for whatever he can.
Strothers has the superior BJJ but he's also working some ground strikes into his gameplan.

That's three minutes gone in the round.
de Souza preventing the ground and pound from doing any damage.

It looks like we're going to have a standup here. Neither fighter is doing enough on the ground.

de Souza moves into the clinch successfully.
de Souza swings wildly with an uppercut but Strothers uses good head movement to avoid it.
de Souza misses with a punch to the body.
de Souza throws a nice elbow but it doesn't land.
An uppercut on the inside fails to land for de Souza.

Strothers jumps guard and drags de Souza to the mat. He's obviously going to be looking for submissions off his back.
de Souza trying to control but Strothers is working from the bottom.
de Souza stopping the sweep attempt from Strothers.

That's four minutes gone in the round.
My god... these two guys really need to pick up the pace or everyone will leave to go get a beer.

Strothers is active off his back here, looking for submissions.
The fighters are trapped in the ropes so we're going to have a reposition here. The ref calls for a break and repositions the fighters in the center of the ring.
There's a bit of a scramble here and now Strothers is on top in guard.
Strothers thows a big elbow that misses.
The crowd thankful this round is nearly over.
de Souza has Strothers pulled in close to control his posture.
Strothers thows a big elbow that misses.
de Souza is pulling down on Strothers's head. It's preventing any offense from Strothers, at least for the moment.

And that's the end of the fight!
Lamont Strothers comfortably won the final round on my scorecard.
I think Strothers 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 Ren Mimura scores the fight 28:29
Judge Hirohito Nitta scores the fight 28:29
Judge Kenichi Hosakawa scores the fight 28:29

In favor of your winner, by unanimous decision... Lamont Strothers!