UFC Fight Night 34 results: Illegal elbows give Kiichi Kunimoto DQ win over Luiz Dutra

SINGAPORE – It certainly was not the type of debut that Luiz Dutra and Kiichi Kunimoto wanted to have.

After landing five elbows in the clinch, three of which seemed to be directly to the back of Kunimoto’s head, Dutra was disqualified in the first round and left the octagon in frustrated tears. Referee John Sharp halted the fight at 2:57 of the first round when Kunimoto said he couldn’t continue.

The welterweight bout was part of the main card of today’s UFC Fight Night 34 event at Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Singapore. It streamed on the UFC’s new Fight Pass digital network.

Dutra fended off a Kunimoto takedown attempt early in the fight and was able to land a few punches in the process. Ninety seconds in, he got separation and came back to the center of the cage after a lengthy clinch. Kunimoto landed a solid kick, but Dutra was right behind it with a counter.

Up against the fence once again, Dutra went to work. He landed five solid elbows to Kunimoto’s head – but three of them seemed to be clearly in the back, while the first two may have had some wiggle room closer to the ear.

Kunimoto fell to the canvas, and Sharp stopped the fight for the doctor to check on Kunimoto. The translator asked Kunimoto twice if he could continue, and twice he said he could not. Without little choice left in the matter, Sharp slapped Dutra with a disqualification. The Brazilian broke into tears against the cage with the realization that his UFC debut, which he thought was about to be a TKO win, suddenly was a DQ loss.

Kunimoto (16-5-2 MMA, 1-0 UFC) ran his winning streak to five fights. Dutra (11-3-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) had a four-fight winning streak snapped.

Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 34 results include:

• Kiichi Kunimoto def. Luiz Dutra via disqualification (illegal elbows) – Round 1, 2:57
• Kyung Ho Kang def. Shunichi Shimizu via submission (arm-triangle choke) – Round 3, 3:53
• Max Holloway def. Will Chope via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 2:27
• Katsunori Kikuno def. Quinn Mulhern via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Royston Wee def. David Galera via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-26)
• Mairbek Taisumov def. Tae Hyun Bang via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Dustin Kimura def. Jon Delos Reyes via submission (armbar) – Round 1, 2:13
• Russell Doane def Leandro Issa via submission (triangle choke) – Round 2, 4:59

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 34, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.

John Morgan contributed to this report on-site in Singapore.