UFC Fight Night 103 results: Augusto Mendes gets full camp, split-decision win over Frankie Saenz

PHOENIX – Augusto Mendes dropped Frankie Saenz, was dropped by him in return, and just barely escaped with a win by the narrowest of margins in a wild fight with several dramatic swings.

In the end, Mendes (6-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) used his grappling and his pressure down the stretch to edge out Saenz (11-5 MMA, 3-3 UFC) via a narrow split-decision victory, taking the fight with scores of 28-29, 29-28, and 29-28.

The bantamweight bout was part of the preliminary card of today’s UFC Fight Night 103 event at Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix. It aired on FS1 following additional prelims on UFC Fight Pass and ahead of a main card on FS1.

Mendes got off to a strong start in the first round, using his takedowns to force Saenz to work off his back, then tagging him with hard shots once he got back to his feet. At several points Saenz seemed to be on shaky legs, but still he kept battling back into the fight, stubbornly taking Mendes’ best shots and coming back for me.

In the second, Saenz managed to turn the tables when he scrambled up from a Mendes takedown just in time to land a hard elbow to the jaw in the clinch. The blow stunned Mendes and sent him crashing to the floor, but Saenz was unable to fully capitalize on the opportunity, and soon Saenz had recovered his senses.

The fight seemed to come down to the final round, which is when Mendes seemed to focus on keeping the pressure on Saenz, forcing him into a defensive mode as they battled in the clinch, grinding out the win after a grueling and exhausting fight. When the judges had their say, two of three saw it for Mendes, netting him the split-decision win after a gritty battle.

The victory is Mendes’ first after his knockout loss to current UFC bantamweight champ Cody Garbrandt last February. Saenz has now lost three straight.

Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 103 results include:

For complete coverage UFC Fight Night 103, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(MMAjunkie’s John Morgan contributed to this report on site in Phoenix.)