UFC 165 results and photos: Wilson Reis wins UFC debut, tops Ivan Menjivar

TORONTO – It wasn’t an electrifying win, but it was a win nonetheless for Wilson Reis.

The Brazilian, making his UFC debut, outpointed Ivan Menjivar for a unanimous decision win, getting scores of 29-28 across the board.

The bantamweight bout was part of today’s UFC 165 event at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre. It aired on FOX Sports 1 following additional prelims on Facebook and ahead of the main card on pay-per-view.

Both fighters worked kicks to the body early, but it was Reis who pressed forward. He missed with a big swing over the top, then tried it again moments later. They briefly tied up, and Reis tried to pepper in uppercuts, but it was Menjivar who landed a glancing knee in tight to force Reis to back his way out. A few times, Reis backed Menjivar up with a combination, but he didn’t shoot for a takedown until 40 seconds left in the round. With the fight on the ground, he likely secured the frame, but didn’t leave much time to do damage.

Both fighters brought the same mostly conservative attack to the second round. But this time, Reis took the fight to the canvas a little more than a minute in. But Menjivar did well to get back to his feet without taking much damage. After a minute on the feet, Reis landed his third takedown. And again, while the damage wasn’t there, the point-scoring was.

In the third, Menjivar continued to kick to the legs and body, but he was backing up like in the first two rounds. He stuffed a Reis takedown attempt 90 seconds in, then tried for a guillotine choke. But Reis popped his head out, stayed after the takedown, then dragged Menjivar down with three minutes to work. He popped over to full mount and worked for an arm-triangle choke, but mostly just kept Menjivar stifled beneath him, working in short shots to stay active on top. Menjivar recovered to full guard, but it was a clear round for Reis.

“I thought I put on a great fight,” Reis said. “I felt awesome and I’m really happy. I came from a long way and I think I deserved to be here. I just proved that I deserve to be in the top 10 and it couldn’t be more special.”

“I just didn’t get into it tonight,” Menjivar said. “He controlled the bout, he was always more aggressive and was making all the right moves and he deserved it. No doubt about it.”

Reis (17-4 MMA, 1-0 UFC), a nine-fight Bellator veteran, won for the fifth straight time. Menjivar (25-11 MMA, 4-4 UFC) stays in the loss column after a submission loss to Urijah Faber in February and now has lost three of his past four.

Up-to-the-minute UFC 165 results include:

• Wilson Reis def. Ivan Menjivar via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Stephen Thompson def. Chris Clements via KO (punches) – Round 2, 1:27
• Mitch Gagnon def. Dustin Kimura via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 1, 4:05
• John Makdessi def. Renee Forte via KO (punches) – Round 1, 2:01
• Michel Prazeres def. Jesse Ronson via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
• Alex Caceres def. Roland Delorme via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
• Daniel Omielanczuk def. Nandor Guelmino via KO (punches) – Round 3, 3:18

For complete coverage of UFC 165, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.

John Morgan, Ben Fowlkes and Mike Bohn contributed to this report on-site in Toronto.