Lance Benoist was battered and bruised, but walked away with a unanimous decision in the first UFC bout of his career. A broken nose in the second round looked like it could have swayed the judges in Riddle’s favor, but Lance — and his broken nose — won a 29-28 decision in the end.
The first round was all Benoist. He looked like the better striker, and performed an impressive sweep toward the end of the first round and ended up mounting riddle and landing some nice blows. Round: Benoist
The second round was still Benoist, although Riddle looked much better in this round than he did the first. Riddle utilized his wrestling more in this round and tried to use his size and strength advantage to keep Lance in close. A knee landed square in the middle of the round which left Benoist with an obviously broken nose. Round: Benoist
The third round was all Matt Riddle as Benoist valiantly defended his nose from some vicious ground and pound. Lance does a great job of controlling Riddle’s posture and doesn’t take a ton of damage. Round: Riddle
The biggest question (from those of us outside of Team Vaghi) was whether or not Lance could handle a three round fight being that a majority of his amateur and professional bouts never left the first round. After a three round war with a bigger and stronger opponent, I think the answer is a resounding yes, he can handle a war.
