DALLAS – Just how adept did Cortney Casey prove to be at the task of hurting Jessica Aguilar inside the cage?
For one thing, she managed to do a lot of her damage as she lay flat on her back with Aguilar (19-6 MMA, 0-2 UFC) standing over her. From the mat to the feet, Casey (7-4 MMA, 3-3 UFC) battered Aguilar bloody, but couldn’t put her away, settling instead for a one-sided unanimous decision victory after three hard rounds.
The strawweight fight was part of today’s UFC 211 preliminary card at American Airlines Center in Dallas. It streamed on UFC Fight Pass prior to FX prelims and a pay-per-view main card.
While Casey got her hand raised in the end, that doesn’t mean she didn’t face any adversity in the fight. In fact, she spent much of the first two rounds lying prone on the mat as Aguilar looked to attack from the tap, at times dragging Casey back into open space by her heel.
But while it may have seemed like a dominant position for Aguilar, it was Casey who did more damage, landing sharp upkicks to Aguilar’s head and using her long legs to keep Aguilar from mounting any sustained offense from the top.
Casey had to sustain some damage of her own, however. At the end of the first round she appeared to lose a contact lens due to a borderline late right hand Aguilar. Still she came roaring out of her corner to begin the second with a blistering knee to Aguilar’s head.
In the third, Casey managed to keep the fight mostly on the feet, bloodying Aguilar up in close, then hammering her with uppercuts as Aguilar looked to cover up and defend.
By the end, a quick glance at each fighter’s face told the story, as Aguilar was bloody and swollen and Casey looked as if she’d hardly been touched. The judges seemed to notice, as all three awarded the fight to Casey with scores of 30-27 across the board.
The victory gets Casey back in the win column for the first time since her decision loss to Claudia Gadelha in November. Aguilar, who entered the UFC on a 10-fight winning streak, has now lost both her fights inside the octagon.
Up-to-the-minute UFC 211 results include:
For more on UFC 211, check out the UFC Events section of the site.
(MMAjunkie’s John Morgan contributed to this report on site in Dallas.)
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