Durable Frankie Saenz wins decision over Iuri Alcantara
Frankie Saenz repeatedly survived trouble Sunday night against Iuri Alcantara to push back and score enough to win a unanimous decision victory at UFC Fight Night in Porto Alege, Brazil. After three exciting rounds, the judges gave Saenz the fight with scores of 30-27 (twice) and 29-28.
In the first, Alcantara surged near the end of the period, taking Saenz down, taking his back and threatening with an arm bar submission. Saenz defended well, however, managed to reverse positions and ended the round raining down punches into Alcantara's full guard.
At the start of the second, Saenz ate big punches from Alcantara and kept pressing forward, taking the Brazilian down, dragging him to the center of the mat and connecting with big knees to the body and punches to the head. From there, Alcantara rolled into a leg lock attempt, but Saenz once more defended well and went back into the full guard of Alcantara.
The Brazilian didn't concede anything from his back, however, and worked for a triangle choke and rained down sharp elbows to the head of Saenz.
They returned to their feet soon, and Alcantara landed a huge left hand to the chin, but Saenz ate it and took him down to end the round.
Saenz pressed Alcantara at the start of the next round, landing short elbows from the clinch and scoring another takedown. Later, Alcantara landed his own, took the mount and then the back of Saenz, with just 30 seconds left in the fight.
Saenz defended well one final time, got out and ended the fight throwing punches to the downed Alcantara.
The win improved the underdog Saenz's record to 10-2, and Alcantara's loss dropped his mark to 31-6.
