Ketlen vieira is vying for a title shot after defeating Holly Holm by a split decision in the UFC Vegas 55 main show.
Despite being faced by a notable striker, Vieira seemed to be the winner of most exchanges on feet, particularly when it comes to boxing. While Holm racked up a ton of control time in the clinch, Vieira’s ability to do damage when she could work at distance really seemed to be the difference in the fight.
The judges gave Vieira the win on the two cards. Holm was awarded the same 48-47 score by the third judge.
“I was here to knock her off, but she came to stall and that made me doubt my decision,” Vieira stated. She is a great person, but it’s me who has the glory of God .
The striking exchanges didn’t last very long as Vieira was looking to takedown Holm stopped her attempts and she moved into the cage. From there, Holm was content holding onto an underhook and peppering away at the Brazilian with inside punches and knees to the body.
Vieira kept her distance from Holm and worked from the outside to find an opportunity to take down the opponent. Holm was knocked to the ground by Vieira, but she quickly got up to get back on her feet. This allowed Vieira to keep her momentum in her grappling.
The fight almost ended when Vieira attempted to take down Holm with a rear-naked choke. Holm was incredibly reddened by the move. Holm managed to hold on to Vieira’s body and was eventually able to turn her shoulder to free herself from the submission.
In a restart as the third round got underway, Vieira started connecting with a hard right hand that was catching Holm with consistent accuracy. Again and again, Vieira was landing the better punches with several stinging combinations snapping the head around on the boxing Hall of Famer.
Holm’s best weapon on the feet ended up being a well-versed kicking game, which continuously gave Vieira problems. Holm snapped off a pair of front kicks in succession late in the fight, which fended off Vieira’s aggressive striking offense.
Holm tried to win the fight in the last round, but Vieira was already doing a lot of harm on her feet. When the decision went against her, Holm was understandably upset because she was confident that she was leaving with a win on her record.
” I thought that I had won the fight,” Holm stated. “I gave her round two and I felt I won all the rest of the rounds. It was a fight I felt won. I didn’t feel it was a question. I wanted obviously to be more active from the clinch. These areas were still manageable by me.
” I feel like I won, so I have to sort of figure out what will happen now .”
Vieira has now won back-to-back victories over Holm, Tate and Miesha Tate. This could put her closer to her goal of becoming a UFC champion. She’ll now turn her attention to the UFC 277 main event on July 30 where Julianna Pena faces Amanda Nunes in a rematch with the bantamweight title up for grabs.
“Listen everybody — I’m the next champion in the bantamweight division,” Vieira shouted. “I’m next, I’m ready, I’m here!”
