UFC Fight Night 38 results: Fabio Maldonado wins slugfest with Gian Villante

NATAL, Brazil – It wasn’t until Fabio Maldonado got a glimpse of his own blood flowing down his forehead and into his eyes that he decided to get serious.

And when he did, it turned out to be very bad news for Gian Villante, as Maldonado battered the former Hofstra University football player en route to a unanimous decision victory (29-27, 29-28, 29-28).

The light heavyweight bout was part of the main card of today’s UFC Fight Night 38 event Ginasio Nelio Dias in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. It aired on FOX Sports 1 following prelims on FOX Sports 1 and UFC Fight Pass.

Things started off well enough for Villante. He took Maldonado down with ease in the first frame, then kept him flat on his back for almost the entire round. In the second, however, Maldonado’s boxing skills came out to play. He wobbled Villante on the feet, then turned up the pressure after a knee in the clinch opened a cut on Maldonado’s scalp.

From then on it was all Maldonado, as he increased his punching volume just as Villante started to fade. By the final round, Villante found himself exhausted and reeling from one side of the cage to the other, eventually collapsing on the center of the mat just before the horn sounded to bring a merciful close to a brutal bout.

By then, the decision was just a formality.

“It was a war standing up, but that was after he gave me a hard time on the ground,” Maldonado said. “His wrestling is very good, so I knew I had to impose my striking game and avoid the fence. I knew that striking, he’d get tired first.”
 
“There were a couple of times when I knew I hit him and he took a weird step, like he wobbled a little bit, but then he kept coming,” Villante said. “I think I surprised him the same way. He hit me with some good ones and I kept going. I think it was a good fight.”

Maldonado (21-6 MMA, 4-3 UFC) has now won three in a row in the UFC. Villante (11-5 MMA, 1-2 UFC) has lost two of his last three.

Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 38 results include:

• Fabio Maldonado def. Gian Villante via unanimous decision (29-27, 29-28, 29-28)
• Michel Prazeres def. Mairbek Taisumov via unanimous decision (30-25, 30-25, 30-25)
• Rony Jason def. Steven Siler via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 1:17
• Thiago “Marreta” Santos def. Ronny Markes via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 0:53
• Jussier Formiga def. Scott Jorgensen via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 3:07
• Kenny Robertson def. Thiago Perpetuo via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 1:45
• Hans Stringer def. Francimar Barroso via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
• Godofredo Pepey def. Noad Lahat via knockout (flying knee) – Round 1, 2:39

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 38, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.

John Morgan contributed to this report on-site in Brazil.