Marcos Rogerio de Lima played the part of a lumberjack on Saturday night at UFC 298 as he chopped down late-notice replacement Junior Tafa with a blistering series of calf-kicks.
It was an impressive showing from the Brazilian, who was originally scheduled to face Justin Tafa but a fight-week injury left him unable to compete. Tafa’s brother stepped into replace him but that decision backfired after de Lima began hammering away at his lead leg with some serious accuracy and power.
With Tafa limping around the cage, de Lima eventually landing one last leg kick that put the New Zealand native down on the canvas where he ate a few hammer fists before referee Frank Trigg saw enough to rescue him from further harm. The end came at 1:14 in the second round.
“That’s me evolving,” de Lima said about his strategy. “10 years in the game, always evolving. Just trying to get better every time. I saw it at the end of the first round, I could finish the fight. Just calm down, be very methodical about it, little by little and win the fight.”
Despite facing a noted striker with knockout power, de Lima showed no fear on the feet with Tafa and he set the tone immediately with a nasty kick that hurt the former GLORY kickboxer’s leg. From there, de Lima opted to look for the takedown, which was a questionable decision given how badly hurt Tafa seemed to be but the Brazilian maintained control throughout.
As the second round started, Tafa could barely put any weight on his lead leg and attempts to switch stances just didn’t go well for him. Eventually, Tafa had to put his damaged leg back out in front and de Lima took advantage with another hard kick that ultimately ended the fight.
The win moves de Lima to 3-1 over his past four appearances with his only loss coming to multi-time title challenger Derrick Lewis this past July.
This story originally appeared on MMA fighting
