Defense won the evening as Priscila cachoeira beat Ji Yeon Kim to win a slugfest at UFC Vegas 49..
Cachoeira managed to finish the job thanks to her incredible power. Kim was forced to back up several times and she ended the fight by closing the fight with several nasty elbows. While it was a close battle throughout, Cachoeira did enough to get the win with all three judges scoring the fight 29-28 in her favor.
Throughout all three rounds, the flyweights were more than happy to stand and trade with Cachoeira swinging wild shots while Kim was a little more technical with her combinations. Although it was not the best tactical strategy, Cachoeira certainly threw every punch with force and Kim began to be wary of returning fire in some exchanges.
Kim recognized that Cachoeira’s activity had waned a little and she began to get more active in the second round. Kim started looking for a place to put a left jab, and followed that up with a right that caused some swelling.
With five minutes remaining, Cachoeira started throwing caution to the wind as she just started unloading with every punch in her arsenal and she actually tagged Kim with a couple of stiff shots. The only problem is Cachoeira had no interest in playing defense, which allowed Kim to aim and fire on target with several staggering punches of her own.
Because Kim was always so willing to engage in a slugfest, Cachoeira showcased her power by firing away with devastating combinations with little regard about what was being thrown back in her direction.
As she sought to secure the victory, Cachoeira started to close the distance while firing off several nasty standing elbows that actually opened a couple of cuts on Kim’s face. With Kim backing up against the cage, Cachoeirz just went berserk, firing punches and elbows with relentless aggression and that paid off as she had her opponent hurt and stuck without an escape until the fight ended.
Cachoeira was understandably emotional following the win as she improved her record to 3-1 over her past four fights with a potential bonus coming her way after the war with Kim on Saturday night.
