Welcome to the UFC Fight Night: Dominick Cruz vs. TJ Dillashaw results page, where we will be looking back at this evenings fights that took place in Boston, Massachusetts.
In the first fight of the night on the main card, we saw Ross Pearson facing off against heavy hitter Francisco Trinaldo, which ended in a unanimous decision victory for Trinaldo.
Trinaldo came into the contest on a four fight win streak, and the win brings his record to 19-4. For Pearson, the loss marks the Englishman’s inability to get a win streak going since 2013.
The 37 year old Brazilian did good work with countering Pearson, particularly with his left high kick. The fight although good, was scrappy, with the two men being evenly matched. In the end, the difference perhaps came from Trinaldo’s strength, his strikes being the heavier out of the two.
Next up, we saw heavyweight Travis Browne beating Matt Mitrione by TKO in the third round.
Mitrione’s last fight on his contract with the UFC, he was gambling on success in the bout to come into negotiations from a stronger position. Despite a strong start, Mitrione’s performance suffered after a pair of strong eye pokes from Browne. Clearly becoming emotional, Mitrione appeared to lose his cool and started wading in with wild shots.
The eye pokes would unfortunately become the story of the fight, with media pundits nearly unanimously panning referee Gary Foreman’s performance. Foreman didn’t take any points from Browne for the pokes, and in the eyes of some, allowed Mitrione to take more punishment than necessary before stepping in to stop the fight. After the bout, Mitrione’s eye swelled up massively, causing people to wonder how much damage the eye pokes really did.
With the win, Browne gets back on track towards the top of the division, while in defeat Mitrione’s future with the UFC looks uncertain.
In the co-main event of the evening, former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis met Eddie Alvarez, where the former Bellator man took the victory by split decision.
Alvarez looked to take a page out of lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos’s playbook, choosing to clinch and push Pettis against the fence in order to grind out a decision victory. That tactic eventually paid off, as Alvarez managed to secure the takedown halfway through the final round and hold on to earn his decision victory.
The loss, or rather the manner in which he was defeated, puts Pettis in an awkward spot. It’s clear that the blueprint to beat him has been laid out by Dos Anjos and (Clay Guida before him), and for any elite level fighter facing him, they’ll know what game plan to implement.
The fight that everyone wanted to see however, was the main event. In a razor close split decision, Dominick Cruz won back the belt he never lost by beating TJ Dillashaw.
The fight was everything spectators hoped, with both men putting on a clinic in footwork and movement. Each round was hard to call, and in the end the judges gave the victory to Cruz, making him the new UFC Bantamweight champion. As if to show how hard a decision it was, one judge had it as 49-46 for Dillashaw while another had it 49-46 to Cruz.
Regardless of how you feel the fight should have been scored, it’s an incredible story for the returning Cruz, a man who had spent 61 seconds inside the cage in the past four years. Coming back from three knee surgeries and a groin injury, Cruz made a statement with an absolute trademark performance over someone who was tagged as his biggest challenge to date.
UFC Fight Night: Dominick Cruz vs. TJ Dillashaw results
Main card
Dominick Cruz def. T.J. Dillashaw via split decision
Eddie Alvarez def. Anthony Pettis via split decision
Travis Browne def. Matt Mitrione via third-round TKO
Francisco Trinaldo def. Ross Pearson via unanimous decision
Undercard
Patrick Cote def. Ben Saunders via second-round TKO
Ed Herman def. Tim Boetsch via second-round TKO
Chris Wade def. Mehdi Baghdad via submission
Luke Sanders def. Maximo Blanco via submission
Paul Felder def. Daron Cruickshank via submission
Ilir Latifi def. Sean O’Connell via first-round TKO
Charles Rosa def. Kyle Bochniak via unanimous decision
Rob Font def. Joey Gomez via second-round TKO
Francimar Barroso def. Elvis Mutapcic via unanimous decision
