UFC 193 results: Strong early, Daniel Kelly takes decision from Steve Montgomery

Daniel Kelly

MELBOURNE, Australia – Fighting a four-time Olympian in judo, Steve Montgomery never could get things fully started against Daniel Kelly, and it cost him.

Kelly (10-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) was strong early against Montgomery (8-4 MMA, 0-2 UFC), and though he faded a bit in the second, he had enough in the third to get a unanimous decision in front of his home crowd.

The middleweight bout was part of the preliminary card of today’s UFC 193 event at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Australia. It streamed on UFC Fight Pass ahead of additional prelims on FOX Sports 1 and a main card on pay-per-view.

Kelly started in the middle and tried to back Montgomery up. Kelly landed a big left hand that popped Montgomery’s head back, but Montgomery returned fire with a good knee to the body that seemed to hurt Kelly. About 75 seconds in, Kelly got inside and got off some solid dirty boxing, and when Montgomery decided to stay in close with the judoka, he got dropped with a throw.

Kelly got on top and landed solid elbows before Montgomery could recover to full guard. But Kelly exploded out to half-guard and stayed heavy on him, pressing Montgomery’s back to the cage. Montgomery got back to his feet, but Kelly took him back down easily. Moments later, when Montgomery got up again, Kelly dropped him again.

At the start of the second round, Montgomery was better at striking with Kelly and then backing out of the way. But soon after, he clinched back up with Kelly – right in the judoka’s wheelhouse. Kelly stayed after takedowns, but ate a couple elbows because of it.

Kelly seemed to tire a little, and Montgomery landed some solid knees in tight that couldn’t have helped Kelly’s energy level. But midway through, Kelly again tripped Montgomery to the floor. Kelly briefly had a D’Arce choke attempt, but didn’t have much in the tank to make it last.

In the third, Montgomery tried to get strikes together, and though Kelly wasn’t coming forward nearly as hard as the first round, he was still able to get Montgomery to the ground multiple times. In the final minute, he turned a takedown into full mount and had a late arm-triangle choke that he couldn’t finish – but it was enough to seal the deal.

“I had to win the (third) round,” Kelly said. “I was tired. I knew he’d come guns blazing. We were both coming off losses, and you can’t have two losses (in a row) in this organization. Thank God I got to do some judo. He was tougher than I thought he would be, so hat’s off to him and good on him.”

Kelly got back in the win column after a May loss to Sam Alvey. Montgomery now has lost back-to-back fights, both in the UFC, after a five-fight winning streak.

Up-to-the-minute UFC 193 results include:

• Daniel Kelly def. Steve Montgomery via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Richard Walsh def. Steven Kennedy via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
• James Moontasri def. Anton Zafir via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 4:36
• Ben Nguyen def. Ryan Benoit via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 2:35

For complete coverage of UFC 193, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(MMAjunkie’s John Morgan and Steven Marrocco contributed to this report on site in Melbourne.)