Irene Aldana has added another victory to her record book. She became the first UFC fighter to win by upkick after defeating Macy Chiasson in UFC 279.
The end came after the fighters split the first two rounds but with Aldana on her back, she launched a kick at Chiasson and her heel dug into the body. Chiasson immediately fell on the ground, holding her midsection. Jason Herzog was quick to intervene to end the fight.
The end came at 2:21 in the third round as Aldana picked up an impressive win in the 140-pound catchweight contest.
” We train all types of techniques,” Aldana stated about finishing. It’s all kinds of techniques and it was a great success .”
Aldana was able to give up both size and reach advantages and she marched forward looking for a way to get within striking distance of Chiasson. Aldana established quickly a smooth lead jab, and began to pepper Chiasson with punishing kicks.
As round one was coming to an end, Aldana ripped Chiasson’s right arm with a powerful right hand. It landed perfectly and left the former Ultimate Fighter champ on his knees for a while. The continued assault on the feet led to Chiasson making a failed attempt at a takedown that saw Aldana quickly seize on the opening to look for an armbar.
From there, Aldana was blasting away with elbows and still looking to wrap up the submission. There were moments with the armbar where it looked like Chiasson’s arm was completely hyperextended but somehow she managed to survive.
Chiasson tried to shift strategies and came out aggressively in the second round. She grabbed an immediate takedown, before she took Aldana’s arm. As Aldana tried desperately to escape the poor position, Chiasson began using elbows and started hitting Chiasson with her fists.
After losing in the first round, Chiasson made an amazing comeback. The contest would be decided by the last five minutes.
A few striking exchanges led to another takedown from Chiasson except this time she wasn’t able to control Aldana as much, which led to her posturing up over her opponent. That’s when Aldana uncorked the upkick that landed like a bomb to the body and Chiasson was done just a split second later.
Now 4-1 in her past five fights, Aldana continues to prove she’s one of the top fighters across any of the women’s divisions in the UFC and this particular finish shows she’s dangerous anywhere and everywhere inside the cage.
