Aljamain Sterling and Augusto Mendes made their way to the octagon in the Sprint Center for their bantamweight contest which headlined the UFC Fight Pass portion of the preliminaries.
[FIGHT VIDEOS UNDER OFFICIAL RESULT BELOW]
Mendes was quick to come out to the center of the octagon and Sterling remained on the outside, looking to attack from wild angles. They essentially went shot for shot during the feeling out process as Sterling dove in for a strike from a distance and Mendes would counter quickly, forcing Sterling to back up. It wasn’t long before Sterling got closer and closer to the fence due to Mendes backing him up; Mendes fired off a stiff right but Sterling simply ducked under and took him to the canvas.
Sterling ultimately brought the back up standing where Mendes caught him with a big right hand. Stunned, Sterling dropped to his knees where Mendes tried to lock on the guillotine before switching to a triangle choke. Sterling possessed the size advantage so all he had to do was posture up and the short legs of Mendes could not be wrapped around the neck and shoulders of Sterling.
The two made their way back standing in the middle of the round but neither fighter could land anything threatening. Sterling took the fight right back down to the mat with authority in the second, establishing himself as the more dominant fighter.
Sterling had nearly doubled Mendes’ strikes landed throughout the fight and took him down four times before the final round even started, so the final round was more Sterling negating the onslaught that Mendes was trying to bring. Mendes pressed Sterling up against the fence and simply could not get anything to go his way; Everything was coming up Sterling.
Aljamain Sterling def. Augusto Mendes by way of Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
OH @TanquinhoJJ clips Sterling, but Aljo recovers quickly #UFCKansasCity pic.twitter.com/9urLb46Hos
— UFC (@ufc) April 15, 2017
