UFC 304 Prelims: Nathaniel Wood Busts Up Daniel Pineda

Nathaniel Wood continued his quiet climb up the UFC featherweight ranks—but Daniel Pineda made things interesting, as he always seems to do.

In the top preliminary bout of UFC 304 on Saturday in Manchester, England, “The Prospect” entered as a prohibitive four-to-one favorite and, for a few minutes at least, fought like it. Wood (20-6; 8-3 UFC) got out to a hot start, nailing Pineda (28-16, 3 NC; 5-7, 1 NC UFC) with a front kick to the body that folded him in half. “The Pit” managed to snare Wood in his guard as the Englishman swarmed to finish, buying himself time to recover. Pineda did a good job working his way back from the near finish, sweeping Wood and landing some hard ground shots as the round expired. Wood picked the gauntlet right back up in Round 2, hurting Pineda with a pinpoint punch that left him blinking and pawing at his right eye. Again, Pineda plied his veteran savvy and toughness to ride out the storm and recover, but Wood was relentless, going to work with a series of brutal calf kicks that took Pineda’s wheels out from under him. Pineda again survived, buying himself time with a takedown attempt, but he was only delaying the inevitable. Once they returned to their feet, Wood continued the assault, and everything he threw seemed to hurt Pineda. The round expired with Wood on top in Pineda’s full guard as they exchanged punches and elbows.

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The cageside physician took a long look at Pineda’s right eye before allowing him to continue in Round 3, but with a temporary reprieve, he made the most of it, taking down Wood immediately, perhaps trying to keep his shin and face off the artillery range for a while. Wood quickly swept and escaped, and while Pineda stayed stuck to his man, working to keep things on the ground where he might find a submission win, but Wood hung on, defended himself capably and was never in real danger of being finished, despite giving up position to his desperate foe. The judges rightfully saw the fight in favor of Wood via 29-27, 29-27 and 29-28 scores, righting the ship after his loss to Muhammadjon Naimov last October. Pineda’s second straight loss left him at 2-3 with one no contest since rejoining the UFC four years ago.

Brasil Rides Bodywork to Upset of McCann

Bruna Brasil played spoiler in a big way, upending heavy betting favorite and local heroine Molly McCann in their strawweight prelim. For a moment, it looked as if the fight might not make it out of the first round, as Brasil (9-4-1, 2-2 UFC) chose to bypass the chin that helped earn McCann (14-7, 7-6 UFC) her “Meatball” nickname, instead blasting the body with a series of kicks and knees that left the Liverpudlian staggering and covering up. McCann recovered and fought through to the end of the round, and had perhaps her best round in the middle frame, as she turned to her underrated ground game. McCann took Brasil down with a big slam, and while they returned to the feet almost instantly, the takedown itself was the most impactful moment of offense in the round—until the closing seconds, when Brasil floored an off-balance “Meatball” with a punch off of a missed wheel kick. The final round was a back-and-forth affair, with both women landing takedowns and having moments of success on the feet, but Brasil continued to be the more effective woman in all phases. The judges scored the fight for Brasil by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28), getting her back on track after her loss to Konklak Suphisara earlier this year; the loss by McCann evens up her record at 1-1 since dropping from flyweight to strawweight.

Heavy Hadley Turns Away Loughran

Jake Hadley made the most of his short-notice opportunity, edging out Caolan Loughran in their 137-pound catchweight contest. Hadley (11-3), who accepted the call on a week’s notice when Ramon Taveras dropped out, stepped up from his customary flyweight to bantamweight and missed even that mark, necessitating the catchweight. Once the cage door shut behind them, however, “White Kong” was on point, outlanding his shorter, stockier foe with jabs and kicks, while largely turning aside the Irishman’s takedown attempts. Loughran was mostly reduced to throwing single punches that missed short, and takedown attempts leading to clinches against the fence. Hadley gained separation as the fight wore on, and spent much of Round 3 skipping away from Loughran at range, pot-shotting and then evading his foe’s charges. The judges scored the fight for Hadley (30-27, 30-27, 29-28), bringing him to 3-3 overall in the UFC, while Loughran saw his promotional ledger fall to 1-2 in defeat.

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Mokaev Remains Undefeated in Bizarre Scrap

While the multiple pre-fight dustups between Muhammad Mokaev and Manel Kape seemed to imply fireworks for their flyweight contenders’ matchup, the actual fight ended up fizzling rather than sizzling. In contrast to the obvious hostility between the two—which led to them being separated by security personnel during fight week and even in the cage before the fight—the first round was a tense, tentative affair, with Mokaev reduced to throwing single front kicks at range and Kape attempting next to no offense until the final minute, when he landed two big punches that might have been enough to win the round. The second round featured more offense but was a strange five minutes in its own right, as Kape injured the big toe on his right foot early in the round, but managed to continue, only for Mokaev to have a takedown and top position taken away by an incensed referee Mike Beltran, thanks to a blatant grab of Kape’s trunks. The final round was the most conventional of the three, and Kape acquitted himself well considering the obvious damage to his right foot, but there was little suspense when the judges’ scorecards were read, formalizing the unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28) in favor of “The Punisher.” The win brought Mokaev (13-1, 1 NC) to 7-0 in the UFC, though it will remain to be seen whether he impressed UFC matchmakers enough to leapfrog the likes of Steve Erceg and Kai Kara-France, who meet in another flyweight contenders’ matchup next month. Kape (19-7) dropped to 4-3 in the UFC in defeat.

Elliot Sprawls, Brawls His Way Past Parsons

Oban Elliott (11-2) and Preston Parsons (11-5) entertained the British crowd with a tactical, tense three-round welterweight scrap that felt more competitive than the final score indicated. The first two rounds were closely contested, as Elliott turned aside Parsons’ repeated takedown attempts and landed with clean jabs and one-twos, while Parsons damaged the Welshman’s lead leg with heavy low kicks and scored with short punches and elbows in the clinch. Patterson finally landed a solid takedown in Round 3 but was immediately forced to defend himself from an armbar attempt, after which, Elliot popped back up to his feet in time for the final horn. The judges rendered the decision in favor of “The Welsh Gangster” by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28), running his record to 2-0 since joining the UFC out of Dana White's Contender Series last year. Parsons saw his Octagon mark fall to 2-3.

Bukauskas Arm-Triangles Prachnio

Modestas Bukauskas (16-6) picked up a badly needed win, tapping out Marcin Prachnio (17-8) to cap off a wild light heavyweight scrap. Prachnio made some headway early on the strength of his powerful low kicks and awkward flurries of hooks, but Bukauskas was the much cleaner puncher inside, and gained momentum as Prachnio appeared to tire late in Round 1. Prachnio came back strong in the middle frame, catching Bukauskas with a close-quarters head kick during a wild exchange, but Bukauskas shut down the rally with an easy takedown that allowed him to recover and ride out the round. Round 3 began yet again with Prachnio connecting cleanly during a brawl, and he emptied the clip in pursuit of the finish, chasing Bukauskas across the cage with haymakers, but Bukauskas again short-circuited things by dragging Prachnio to the canvas, where he set up in top position and chipped away with short punches and elbows. Prachnio did nothing to escape or even improve his position, but Bukauskas, rather than cruise and run out the clock, set up an arm-triangle choke. “The Baltic Gladiator” squeezed and, despite being in half guard on the wrong side to finish, elicited the tap from an exhausted and overwhelmed Prachnio at 3 minutes, 12 seconds. The win was Bukauskas’ first by submission in the UFC and equalized his mark in the promotion at 4-4; Prachnio fell to 4-6 in the UFC.

Patterson Strangles Crosbie

Sam Patterson made a seamless transition from outlandishly tall lightweight to outlandishly tall welterweight, grounding Kiefer Crosbie with ease and closing things out with an arm-triangle choke. Patterson (13-2-1, 2-1 UFC) wasted little time in showing his superiority on the feet, tagging Crosbie (10-5, 0-2 UFC) with a long uppercut that rocked him. From there, Patterson hustled the Irishman to the floor, landing in full mount, and immediately cinched up an arm-triangle. Patterson jumped to side control and looked close to getting the finish, but was forced to move back to mount, readjust his grip and try again. This time, the tap came within seconds and referee Lukasz Bosacki moved in for the rescue at 2:50 of Round 1. The quick finish was the 6-foot-4 Englishman’s second straight in the UFC, his first since moving up from 155 pounds after his submission win over Yohan Lainesse in January.

Parkin Pummels Brzeski

Michael Parkin (10-0) kept his professional record spotless and thrilled the Manchester crowd, crushing Lukasz Brzeski (9-5-1, 1 NC) with punches in the first round of their heavyweight undercard attraction. Brzeski had the right idea, using kicks and footwork to try and keep the much heavier Brit out of boxing range. However, Parkin simply walked through Brzeski’s shots, including a clean head kick that he shook off with no apparent ill effect, and went to work with big punches in the pocket. Parkin caught the Pole with a flush right hook and, as Brzeski staggered away toward the fence, gave chase, throwing heavy leather with both hands. Five or six unanswered punches later, referee Marc Goddard stepped in to save Brzeski as he slumped against the cage. The win came at 3:23 of Round 1, elevating Parkin’s Octagon tally to 4-0 and likely leaving him knocking on the door of the UFC’s heavyweight Top 15; Brzeski dropped to 1-4 in the UFC.

Bannon Edges Ardelean

In the opening bout, Shauna Bannon (6-1) turned aside a spirited charge from late replacement Alice Ardelean (8-6), holding on to prevail by split decision in their strawweight affair. Ardelean, who stepped in on two weeks’ notice for Bannon’s originally scheduled opponent, Ravena Oliveira, experienced some success early on by taking down the Irish kickboxer—despite a blatant fence grab—and putting in work as Bannon hunted for armbars and triangle chokes from the bottom. Through the first two rounds, Bannon’s submission attack was arguably enough to outweigh Ardelean’s sporadic ground strikes, but it still appeared to be either woman’s fight for the taking heading into the final frame. From there, however, “Mama B” pulled ahead as Ardelean, perhaps showing the effects of the shortened camp, began to flag. Bannon carried the day with 30-27, 29-28 and 28-29 scorecards, elevating her UFC mark to 1-1; Ardelean fell to 0-1 in the promotion.