UFC Vegas 105 Prelims: Rhys McKee Batters Daniel Frunza to Doctor Stoppage

Rhys McKee finally put an elusive check in the Ultimate Fighting Championship win column.

The former British Association of Mixed Martial Arts and Cage Warriors Fighting Championship titleholder racked up three knockdowns and forced a doctor stoppage on Daniel Frunza in their featured UFC on ESPN 65 welterweight prelim on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. It was waved off in between the first and second rounds.

McKee (14-6-1, 1-4 UFC) cut loose with multi-punch bursts and floored the Dana White’s Contender Series graduate with a left hook, a clean one-two and an overhand left. Frunza (9-3, 0-1 UFC) steadied himself amid the abuse but retreated to his corner after the first round with serious damage to his right eye and a gnarly cut to his upper lip. It was enough to warrant fight-ending concern from the cageside physician.

Related » UFC Vegas 105 Round-by-Round Scoring

Meanwhile, Dione Barbosa put her Olympic-level judo skills to use and put away Diana Belbita with an arm-triangle choke in the first round of their women’s flyweight skirmish. Barbosa (8-3, 2-1 UFC) closed the deal 4:13 into Round 1, winning for the fifth time in six appearances.

Belbita (15-10, 2-6 UFC) was outgunned athletically. Barbosa obliged the House of Champions MMA with repeated standup exchanges and excelled as the heavier hitter. She secured a takedown with roughly 90 seconds to go in the first round, moved immediately to full mount and cinched the arm-triangle without much resistance. The tapout soon followed.

The 28-year-old Belbita has lost three fights in a row.

Further down the undercard, Syndicate MMA standout Loma Lookboonmee married an active kicking game on the feet with takedowns and punches on the ground, as she was awarded a unanimous verdict over Istela Nunes in a three-round women’s strawweight encounter. Lookboonmee (10-3, 7-2 UFC) earned 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28 scores from the assigned judges.

A short-notice substitution for Ariane Carnelossi, Nunes (6-6, 0-5 UFC) remains winless in her four-plus years on the UFC roster. Lookboonmee picked her spots, exploited the Brazilian’s weaknesses and patiently waited for openings to present themselves. Nunes made passes at multiple leglocks in the second round but again had issues with consistency. Lookboonmee executed two takedowns in the third round, piled up significant control time and did enough with her ground-and-pound and positional advances to avoid a restart.

Lookboonmee now finds herself on a four-fight winning streak.

Finally, ex-Deep champion and longtime Josh Barnett protégé Victor Henry rebounded from a Nov. 2 submission loss to Charles Jourdain with a unanimous decision over Pedro Falcao in a three-round bantamweight tilt. All three members of the cageside judiciary scored it the same: 29-28 for Henry (25-7, 4-2 UFC).

Falcao (16-5, 0-2 UFC) completed a few takedowns but struggled to string together meaningful offense. Henry dropped the Nova Uniao rep with an overhand right inside the first five minutes and went on to spring multiple reversals after being taken down, forcing the Brazilian to use up valuable energy. Falcao had fewer and fewer answers as time wore on. Henry utilized an effective sprawl down the stretch, had his counterpart reeling late with a left hook-right cross combo and gained some separation when it mattered most.

The 32-year-old Falcao has suffered back-to-back defeats for the second time as a pro.

In other action, Martin Buday (15-2, 6-1 UFC) took a unanimous decision from Uran Satybaldiev (8-1, 0-1 UFC) in a three-round heavyweight scrap, drawing 29-28 marks from all three judges; and Talita Alencar (6-1-1, 2-1 UFC) grounded, pounded and smothered Vanessa Demopoulos (11-7, 5-4 UFC) to a unanimous decision—30-26, 30-27, 30-27—in a three-round women’s strawweight pairing.