The Flyweight, Bantamweight, Featherweight and Lightweight finals of the Road to UFC tournament took place last night at UFC Vegas 68. Road to UFC in 2022 was a tournament to find the top Asian prospects across these four divisions.
Flyweight Final
The flyweight final featured two South Korean prospects, Hyunsung Park and Seungguk Choi. After a back-and-forth fight Park secured a rear naked choke in the third round to remain undefeated and become the first Road to UFC contract winner of the night. He will make history as the first South Korean flyweight on the UFC roster, with an 8-0 record and 7 of those victories coming inside the distance Park is certainly someone to keep an eye on. Flyweight has become an incredibly deep division so Park will be looking at an unranked fighter to debut against, Carlos Candelario is a popular choice for UFC flyweight prospects as he has most recently fought Jake Hadley and Tatsuro Taira, the latter also fought last night and picked up a great submission win.
Bantamweight Final
In an all-Japanese bout the bantamweight final featured Toshiomi Kazama and Rinya Nakamura, Nakamura was coming off back to back first round KOs in the lead-up to the final, while Kazama with a strong wrestling game came into the fight with a 10-2 record and five of those wins coming via submission. The fight started at an incredibly high pace with both men swinging violently but it was over in a flash as Nakamura landed a stunning left straight which put Kazama out merely 33 seconds into the first round. As one of the stand-out performers from the event and the tournament itself Rinya Nakamura is destined for some great fights in future. Douglas Silva de Andrade is a seasoned veteran that would provide a stern test for Nakamura welcoming him into the bantamweight pool.
Featherweight Final
Road to UFC featherweight final was next with Chinese fighter Yi Zha and Jeongyeong Lee fighting out of Daegu, South Korea. Zha was 10-1 in his last 11 bouts and Lee came into the final on a six-fight win streak, Yi Zha started the fight off with an intense routine of clinch work and grappling against the fence throughout the first 5 minutes. This continued into the second round however Lee was landing good shots throughout the round with a variety of punches and knees. Lee pressed forward in the third utilising his sped advantage in the final round, Zha continued the onslaught of grappling and clinch work in the third but it lacked any real damage at points.
Lee took the victory with a split decision, much to the disappointment of Yi Zha who thought he had done enough to get the win. In his post-fight interview, Lee mentioned a few top-ranked featherweights but Mike Trizano finished fellow countryman Seung Woo Choi at UFC 281, with Lee and Trizano holding similar records that match up makes a lot of sense.
Lightweight Final
At Lightweight, it was Indonesian prospect Jeka Saragih against Indian star Anshul Jubli competing for a UFC contract. Saragih provided two vicious finishes last year on his route to the final and his opponent Anshul Jubli was undefeated at 6-0 coming into the final. The first round showed a dominating display from Jubli amounting to over three minutes of control time within the first 5 minutes, Saragih came charging out of the corner in the second and Jubli looked to his success in the first and took Saragih to the canvas where he pressured constantly until he found an opening to land some hard elbows before Marc Goddard stepped in with just over a minute remaining in the round.
With a dominant display from Jubli to earn his UFC contract with a record of 7-0 he will enter the most prolific division in the sport. Viacheslav Borshchev has a record of 6-3 and would be a good litmus test for the prodigy Jubli to begin his UFC journey.
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
