UFC Dublin Results: Emotional Aisling Daly Storms Ericka Almeida for the Win

Dubliners love their hometown fighters and that couldn’t have been more apparent than when the entire crowd was signing along to Aisling Daly’s entrance music, the Cranberries. It certainly amped Daly up for her fight with Ericka Almeida at Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 76 in Dublin, as she stormed Almeida from the opening bell.

Daly blasted Almeida with a flurry of punches to start the fight, but the Brazilian wouldn’t back down, as she fired back to survive the initial onslaught. Much of the opening moments took place up against the fence, but Daly eventually tripped Almeida to the canvas. The Dubliner stood in Almeida’s guard, dropping punches until the end of the round.

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Daly opened again with a flurry, clinched along the fence, and then tripped Almeida to the mat. Daly did a good job controlling on the floor, driving her shoulder into Almeida’s face, but Almeida eventually reversed position and worked to Daly’s back.

As she tried to find space for a rear-naked choke, Almeida ate numerous punches, as Daly kept flinging her fists over her shoulder. They weren’t the most powerful punches, but several landed and kept Almeida’s attacks at bay.

The third frame was Daly’s most dominant. She again opened with a firestorm of punches. As they tussled, Almeida jumped to Daly’s back, but Daly pinned her against the fence and landed numerous blows to the face, her standing, and Almeida clinging to her back.

Daly eventually forced Almeida to the canvas, while she remained standing, picking and choosing her shots for the final few minutes of the fight. Almeida used up-kicks to keep Daly from taking her out, and even bloodied her nose with one of them, but Daly finished strong, landing several punches and hammerfists in the final 20 seconds to punctuate her performance.

Although Daly had blood streaming from her nose, the crowd certainly believed she won, as they erupted in cheers as the final horn sounded. Daly leaped onto the Octagon fence, tears streaming down her face from the emotion of having fought, and fought well, in front of her hometown fans.

Having missed the UFC’s trip to her hometown last year, it was a very special night for Daly, who wasn’t going to miss fighting in Dublin this time.

“It was heartbreaking (to not fight in Dublin last year),” she said after the fight. “I wasn’t gonna miss this. I turned up tonight to impress. I hope you enjoyed it.”

It’s difficult to tell if they enjoyed it as much as Daly, whose smile stretched from ear to ear, but the crowd in Dublin were ecstatic when she was announced the unanimous-decision winner.