UFC Fight Night 41 results: Flashy Maximo Blanco tops gritty Andy Ogle

BERLIN – Maximo Blanco (10-6-1 MMA, 2-3 UFC) may not have been able to maintain his flashy hot start, but he did enough to survive a gritty Andy Ogle (9-5 MMA, 1-4 UFC).

Blanco opened the first and second rounds with highlight-reel kicks, but then had to stave off a recovered Ogle to get a unanimous decision win, taking a trio of 29-28 scores from the Brit.

The featherweight bout was part of the preliminary card of today’s UFC Fight Night 41 event at O2 World Berlin in Germany. It streamed on UFC Fight Pass.

Blanco sprinted to the center and landed a flying kick in the first several seconds of the fight. The highlight-reel strike just missed Ogle’s head, but it still caught the Brit cold. Blanco then pounced on him. He spent the next 25 seconds defending ground-and-pound, then worked his way to his feet. But Blanco draped all over him and dragged him back down, looking to take his back.

Somehow, Ogle recovered from Blanco’s early onslaughed and tried to work a guillotine choke. But it wasn’t there, and he again had to defend the tough striking of Blanco pressed against the cage.

Ogle got some separation, ate a few punches, then took Blanco to the canvas. Trying to turn things around, he took Blanco’s back and looked for a rear-naked choke. Blanco did well to defend, but with Ogle bleeding on him, Blanco finally reversed out to get out of danger. The two fired away at each other on the feet in the final minute of the round.

In the second, Blanco again tried a leaping kick. He turned it into a takedown, but Ogle popped right back up and took Blanco’s back. Blanco appeared to use some help from the fence to keep upright, but Ogle got him down, anyway. Ogle stayed draped on him. Ogle kept a body triangle tied in and tried to work for a choke. He was close multiple times to getting his arm under Blanco’s chin, but the Venezuelan defended. He ultimately spun back to top position to close the round, but it still was a frame that Ogle used to turn things around.

There was no flying kick from Blanco to open the third, but the two traded a few straight rights. Blanco’s jab worked a little better than Ogle’s in the first minute, and Ogle definitely showed more wear on his face as Blanco continued to bounce in the middle. As the two looked for an opening, Ogle landed a solid left. But Blanco landed more often. With less than a minute left, Blanco landed a spinning kick that seemed to put the cap on things and as time ticked down.

Blanco saved his job and snapped a two-fight skid. Ogle lost his third straight and fourth in five UFC fights, putting his job with the promotion in the crosshairs.

Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 41 results include:

• Maximo Blanco def. Andy Ogle via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Ruslan Magomedov def. Viktor Pesta via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 41, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(Steven Marrocco contributed to this report on-site in Berlin.)