UFC 297 is now one for the books and Toronto, Canada had a fun night of fights. The fans didn’t have it all their own way, however, as the Canadian males went 0-7 in their fights. The Canadian women did far better, however. Gillian Robertson and Jasmin Jasudavicius put on two of best performances on the event. We look at these dominant performances.
Jasmin Jasudavicius is Vicious – Earns Submission Victory and Breaks Multiple Records
Soon after Jimmy Flick got the non-Canadian fighters off to a 1-0 start, the pressure was on Jasudavicius to perform. Standing across from her was Priscila Cachoeira, a woman who the day before weigh ins told the UFC that she couldn’t make the flyweight limit. The Canadian let her coaches decide her fate and the two women agreed to a bantamweight clash.
Despite Jasudavicius being a favourite, everyone knew the power that her Brazilian opponent held, especially at bantamweight. The fight played out in a way that, realistically few predicted. Canada’s own took Cachoeira down within the first thirty seconds of the bout and instantly everyone recognised the skill gap between the two women. A total of 138 strikes to just five saw Jasudavicius put her stamp on the fight. The second round saw the 34 year old drop her opponent, jump on her when she had her opponent hurt and continue the vicious beatdown.
Her performance was the epitome of position over submission. She didn’t chase any submissions too much and give up her dominance. 110-2 was the total strike score for round two, in favour of the Canadian, of course.
Round three saw much of the same. 78-19 total strikes in favour of the woman who was clearly ahead. A single submission attempt saw the fight ended, with Cachoeira all but giving up to Jasudavicius’ choke.
The dominance that Jasudavicius showed in her home country broke a number of records including:
Total strikes landed in a three-round strike (326)
Total ground strikes landed in a three-round strike (300)
UFC women’s bantamweight record for latest submission with stoppage at 4:21 of Round 3
UFC women’s bantamweight record for total strikes landed in a fight with 326
UFC women’s bantamweight record for total ground strikes landed in a fight with 300
UFC women’s bantamweight record for total head strikes landed in a fight with 297
UFC women’s bantamweight record for total strikes landed in a round (Round 1) with 138
UFC women’s bantamweight record for total strikes attempted in a round (Round 1) with 173
Jasmine Jasudavicius and Priscila Cachoeira set UFC women’s bantamweight record for total strikes in a fight (three rounds) with 352
A truly amazing, dominant performance from Jasudavicius.
Speaking after the fight, the Canadian said:
“The entire time that I was in there I was just trying to beat her up, man. It pissed me off, that weight discrepancy man. The thing that she did with the weight, it pissed me off so much. So the first round I just wanted to torture her a little bit. Like be professional, come on. We agreed to this weight so long ago.”
Gillian Robertson is Savage – TKO’s Polyana Viana in Round 2 after Mauling her for 8 Minutes
Gillian Robertson, like her countrywoman before her was looking to get the Canadian crowd back on side after Sam Patterson quickly tapped out Yohan Lainesse.
Taking on Polyana Viana, Robertson held a clear advantage in the grappling realm and it showed straight from the first bell. Robertson took her Brazilian opponent down and like we’d already seen earlier on in the evening, there was a clear focus on position over submission for Savage. She was able to control Viana on the ground from the moment that she got the fight to the floor, punished her with brutal shots and the Brazilian was lucky to see the second round. A clear 10-9 for Robertson.
The second round began and it was much the same. A brief exchange on the feet went down until Robertson decided to get the fight to the ground and back into her wheelhouse. Again, it took just that one takedown for Robertson to be in control. Viana didn’t seem to know how to get back to her feet or was simply unable to due to the dominant top control of her Canadian opponent. The former TUF alumni worked her way into a position which gave Viana two options, continue to receive brutal ground and pound from guard, or give up her back. She chose the latter, eventually leading to the TKO victory for Robertson.
With this win, Robertson picked up her second TKO victory in the UFC and will now look to get some momentum going at strawweight after losing in her return to the division.
