Jessica-Rose Clark spent two rounds beating Paige VanZant on the mat and one mostly enduring against her on the feet, and in the end the math worked out in her favor.
Clark (9-4 MMA, 2-0 UFC) took the victory on the scorecards in a grappling-heavy effort against a game, though apparently injured VanZant (7-4 MMA, 4-3 UFC), notching a unanimous decision win with scores of 30-27, 29-28, and 29-28.
The women’s flyweight bout was the co-main event of today’s UFC Fight Night 124 card at Scottrade Center in St. Louis. It aired on FS1 following prelims on FS1 and UFC Fight Pass.
Clark’s advantage in the grappling department became apparent early on in the fight, as she avoided a VanZant throw and spent much of the opening round in top position, struggling to get in position for an arm-triangle choke as she kept VanZant pinned to the mat.
VanZant would briefly manage to turn the tables in the second, getting top position thanks to Clark’s impatience to get the fight to the mat, but things didn’t work out much better for her there. As VanZant worked from inside Clark’s guard, Clark locked up a triangle choke from the bottom, coming close to finishing it before running out of time in the round.
In the third, VanZant finally managed to keep the fight standing, but by then she had an apparent injury to her right arm to deal with. That resulted in her throwing almost no strikes with her right hand in the final frame, but still managing to do solid work with her kicks.
In the end, all three judges gave the fight to Clark, with one of them giving her every round.
“I feel good,” Clark said. “I had a lot more that I wanted to show out there tonight, but that happens and I felt that I dominated the fight. I knew coming in that I was the better fighter and I worked hard to show that. I feel I’m one of the best women in the world and I can’t wait to see who the UFC is going to give me next.
“I’ve fought six times in the last 18 months, but I’m just getting started. I had a stressful week and I did let the stress get to me a bit. So for now, I just want to get home and I will figure out the rest later.”
The victory gives Clark a two-fight winning streak in the UFC, and a three-fight streak overall. VanZant has lost two straight, and three of her last four.
Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 124 results include:
- Jessica-Rose Clark def. Paige VanZant via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
- Kamaru Usman def. Emil Meek via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Darren Elkins def. Michael Johnson via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 2:22
- James Krause def. Alex White via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- Marco Polo Reyes def. Matt Frevola via knockout (punches) – Round 1, 1:00
- Irene Aldana def. Talita Bernardo via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Kyung Ho Kang def. Guido Cannetti via submission (triangle choke) – Round 1, 4:53
- Jessica Eye def. Kalindra Faria via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
- J.J. Aldrich def. Danielle Taylor via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- Mads Burnell def. Mike Santiago via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 124, check out the UFC Events section of the site.
(MMAjunkie’s John Morgan contributed to this report on site in St. Louis.)