UFC 216 results: Poliana Botelho outworks takedown-hungry Pearl Gonzalez for decision sweep

It probably wasn’t how she wanted to get a win in her UFC debut, but Poliana Botelho certainly will take it.

Botelho (6-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) took a unanimous decision from Pearl Gonzalez (6-3 MMA, 0-2 UFC) with a trio of 30-27 scores. Gonzalez spent much of the fight trying to take Botelho down, but never could, and Botelho picked up the win by staying active with her back against the fence.

The women’s strawweight bout was part of the preliminary card of today’s UFC 216 event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It aired on FX following additional prelims on UFC Fight Pass and ahead of a main card on pay-per-view.

Gonzalez got to the center of the cage quickly, then worked three hard leg kicks early. Botelho clinched up, but Gonzalez pushed her to the fence. They stayed there for a couple minutes until referee Jason Herzog finally broke them apart. Botelho tried to kick again after the break, but they tied up again. They traded positions on the fence, but it was Gonzalez mostly in control. Botelho landed elbows from that clinched position, but that was her best offense. Gonzalez left her little choice. But at least she was working.

Gonzalez went after a takedown early in the second, but couldn’t complete it. Instead, it was a repeat of the first round – Gonzalez was in control, but Botelho’s offense was in landing elbows as long as she couldn’t get her back off the cage. Botelho landed knees from that tied-up position, and then more elbows. From an offensive standpoint, Botelho was doing more work – but the perception may have been that Gonzalez was winning thanks to the control. With 90 seconds left, Herzog broke them apart. Down the stretch, Gonzalez landed a left jab, then ducked barely away from two big Botelho right hands.

Botelho clipped Gonzalez with a right in the third, but Gonzalez ate it and again pressed Botelho to the cage. Botelho kept punching and elbowing, and Gonzalez kept going after the takedown – with nothing there. When Herzog broke them apart with 100 seconds left, it took Gonzalez only 10 secnods to clinch back up again. She appeared to be out of gas from the takedown attempts.

With 35 seconds left, again Herzog broke them apart for the home stretch and Botelho landed a kick to the body, then barely missed a spinning kick up high. Gonzalez tied her up again and heard the boos from the crowd. And with a few seconds left, Botelho took Gonzalez down. When she got up at the horn, she threw shade Gonzalez’s way and walked away with a disgusted look on her face.

Botelho won for the fourth straight time in what was her first fight in more than two years. Gonzalez lost for the second straight time, both in the UFC, after signing with the promotion on a six-fight winning streak earlier this year.

Up-to-the-minute UFC 216 results include:

• Poliana Botelho def. Pearl Gonzalez via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Matt Schnell def. Marco Beltran via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 30-27)
• John Moraga def. Magomed Bibulatov via knockout (punches) – Round 1, 1:38
• Brad Tavares def. Thales Leites via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 30-26)

For complete coverage of UFC 216, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(MMAjunkie’s John Morgan and Simon Samano contributed to this report on site in Las Vegas.)