UFC 190 results: Patrick Cummins devastates Rafael Cavalcante with elbows

Patrick Cummins

RIO DE JANEIRO – The horror show that was Patrick Cummins’ face in the second round belied the reality of the fight. Then in the third, he gave Rafael Cavalcante’s face a little horror show of its own.

Cummins (8-2 MMA, 4-2 UFC) landed eight takedowns in the fight against Cavalcante (12-6 MMA, 1-3 UFC), with the last one leading to a swarm of elbows for a TKO win in the third round.

The light heavyweight bout was part of the preliminary card of today’s UFC 190 event at HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro. It aired on FOX Sports 1 following additional prelims on UFC Fight Pass and ahead of a main card on pay-per-view.

Cavalcante looked for a kick early, but Cummins had little problem taking him down. When “Feijao” popped back up, Cummins tied him up on the fence, then slammed him down again. Twice more, Cummins picked Cavalcante up, though he couldn’t finish true slams. But two minutes in, he got him down and smothered Cavalcante on the canvas and landed knees to the body and punches.

Midway through the first, when Cavalcante got back to his feet, he swung wildly, but Cummins worked through it – though he ate a right hand. A fourth takedown was good for Cummins, and again “Feijao” swung hard when he got back to his feet. Cummins ate punches, though, and had swelling and cuts under both eyes with a minute left in the frame.

In the second, with Cummins’ face already looking a mess, Cavalcante caught him with a big right. That forced Cummins to shoot for another takedown, and he landed it and went to work on top in Cavalcante’s guard – bleeding all over him. After plenty of time there, referee Mario Yamasaki stood Cummins up for a doctor to check his cuts, but he was allowed to continue.

Cavalcante finally got back to his feet with about a minute left in the round, but his mouthpiece fell out and he seemed to take his sweet time putting it back in – perhaps needing every second he could muster to recover from the ground-and-pound Cummins delivered.

Quickly into the third, Cummins landed his eighth takedown of the fight, and he made it count. He went to work on Cavalcante with heavy elbows – and he didn’t let up until Yamasaki finally stepped in.

Cummins got back in the win column after a knockout loss to Ovince Saint Preux in April. He now has won four of his past five fights. Cavalcante lost for the second straight time for the first time in his professional career. He has dropped three of his past four, all in the UFC.

Up-to-the-minute UFC 190 results include:

For complete coverage of UFC 190, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(MMAjunkie’s John Morgan and Mike Bohn contributed to this report on site in Brazil.)