UFC on ESPN 43 Prelims: Surgical Lucas Alexander Retires Steven Peterson in Texas

Lucas Alexander could not have been more impressive in his second assignment with the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The long-limbed Fusion X-Cel featherweight prospect leaned on debilitating kicks, airtight takedown defense and surgical counters ahead of a unanimous verdict over onetime Legacy Fighting Championship titleholder Steven Peterson in the featured UFC on ESPN 43 prelim on Saturday at the AT&T Center in San Antonio. All three cageside judges scored it the same: 30-27 for Alexander (8-3, 1-1 UFC).

Peterson (19-11, 3-5 UFC) was outmatched stylistically and athletically. Alexander blew up his base with repeated kicks to the lower lead leg, utilized exquisite footwork and connected with punches while moving forward and backward. Peterson’s situation continued to deteriorate as time wore on, as his lack of mobility turned him into a stationary target and left him vulnerable to body kicks and multi-punch volleys to the head.

Afterward, the 32-year-old Peterson announced his retirement from mixed martial arts.

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Further down the card, former Fury Fighting Championship titleholder C.J. Vergara staged a borderline-miraculous rally to stop Daniel da Silva with unanswered punches in the second round of their chaotic flyweight clash. Vergara (11-4-1, 2-2 UFC) brought it to a close 4:04 into Round 2.

Da Silva (11-5, 0-4 UFC) nearly finished it on multiple occasions in the first round. There, he had Vergara reeling with a glancing wheel kick, gave chase with a hellacious flurry of punches, executed a takedown and flirted with a rear-naked choke. Ultimately, da Silva ran out of gas and ideas. Vergara countered an ill-advised calf slicer in the middle stanza and floated into an arm-triangle choke, then pinned the depleted Brazilian to the canvas with an unending stream of elbows and punches. Da Silva failed to answer referee Jason Herzog’s repeated calls to intelligently defend himself.

Vergara, 31, has won seven of his past nine bouts.

In other action, Trevin Giles (16-4, 7-4 UFC) eked out a split verdict—29-28, 28-29, 29-28—over Preston Parsons (10-4, 1-2 UFC) in a three-round welterweight affair; and Victor Altamirano (12-2, 2-1 UFC) took a unanimous decision from Vinicius Salvador (14-5, 0-1 UFC) in a three-round flyweight pairing, drawing 29-28 marks on all three scorecards.