UFC 221 results: 'Maestro' Dong Hyun Kim takes split decision from Damien Brown

In a methodical fight short on a ton of action, ”Maestro” Dong Hyun Kim took a split decision from Damien Brown.

Kim (16-8-3 MMA, 3-2 UFC) picked up a pair of 29-28 scores against Brown (17-12 MMA, 2-4 UFC), who had a 29-28 dissenting score of his own in the losing cause.

The lightweight bout closed out the preliminary card of today’s UFC 221 event at Perth Arena in Perth, Western Australia. It aired on FS1 following additional prelims on UFC Fight Pass and ahead of a main card on pay-per-view.

Brown and Kim pushed some jabs out and faked and feinted in the first couple minutes. But almost out of nowhere, Brown threw a hard right kick out after two minutes and took Kim’s feet out from under him. Kim smiled when he got up off the canvas, but Brown’s kick was effective again not long after that.

Kim tried to work kicks of his own in the second, but Brown stayed patient. That may have been as much about respecting Kim’s power as anything else. Kim was scoring with kicks of his own throughout, though, and when he tried to work in his jab in combos, he made things a little tougher on Brown.

The fight seemed to be hanging in the balance going to the final round. Brown landed to the body with a kick, but a combo behind it didn’t have much there. That was the story of the round. With a minute left, the offense started to open up a little. But both fighters seemed content to go to the judges thinking they had done enough.

Kim won for the third straight time. Brown now has dropped three straight fights.

Up-to-the-minute UFC 221 results include:

• “Maestro” Dong Hyun Kim def. Damien Brown via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
• Israel Adesanya def. Rob Wilkinson via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 3:37
• Alex Volkanovski def. Jeremy Kennedy via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 4:57
• Jussier Formiga def. Ben Nguyen via technical submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 3, 1:43
• Ross Pearson def. Mizuto Hirota via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
• Jose Quinonez def. Teruto Ishihara via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
• Luke Jumeau def. Daichi Abe via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-27, 28-27)

For complete coverage of UFC 221, check out the UFC Events section of the site.