UFC Fight Night 119 results: Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos outworks Max Griffin in slugfest

Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos nearly put Max Griffin away in the first, only to turn around and get rocked himself in the second.

But after a wild fight with swings in both directions, it was dos Santos (18-5 MMA, 3-2 UFC) who put things together down the stretch to beat a very tough Griffin (13-4 MMA, 1-2 UFC) via unanimous decision after three rounds.

The welterweight bout was part of the preliminary card of today’s UFC Fight Night 119 event at Ibirapuera Gymnasium in Sao Paulo. It aired on FS2 following additional prelims on UFC Fight Pass and ahead of a main card on FS1.

The fight nearly came to an end late in the opening round when dos Santos hurt Griffin with a thumping right hand to the side of the head, then followed up with an assault that had Griffin wobbling all over the cage.

But despite the fact that he could barely stand by the end of the first, Griffin somehow rebounded in the second round and even had dos Santos hurt at one point, flooring him with a sharp two-punch combo and then driving home another right hand as dos Santos scrambled to his feet.

Still, a part of Griffin never seemed to fully recover after that wild first round, and he had noticeably less pop in the final round, which is when dos Santos took control of the fight, hammering him with right hand counters and dictating most of the action down the stretch.

Once the fight went to the judges, all three saw it for dos Santos, giving him the win with scores of 29-28, 29-27, and 29-28.

Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 119 results include:

• Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos def. Max Griffin via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-27, 29-28)
• Deiveson Figueiredo def. Jarred Brooks via split decision (27-30, 29-28, 29-28)
• Marcelo Golm def. Christian Colombo via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 2:08

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 119, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(MMAjunkie’s John Morgan and Fernanda Prates contributed to this report on site in Sao Paulo.)