UFC Fight Night 95 results: Rani Yahya gets fourth straight with grinding win over Michinori Tanaka

BRASILIA, Brazil – Minutes into the opening round, Rani Yahya looked to be on the verge of putting Michinori Tanaka to sleep with an arm-triangle choke.

Instead, he found himself in a grueling three-round battle against an opponent who simply wouldn’t quit, forcing Yahya (23-8 MMA, 8-2 UFC) to settle for a unanimous decision victory over a resilient, but overmatched Tanaka (11-2 MMA, 2-2 UFC).

The bantamweight bout was part of the preliminary card of today’s UFC Fight Night 95 event at Nilson Nelson Gymnasium in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia. It aired on FS1 following additional prelims on UFC Fight Pass and ahead of a main card on FS1.

For a moment, it looked like one takedown would prove to be all Yahya needed. He got it in the opening moments of the bout, diving in on Tanaka after eating a kick to the body, and seconds later he had locked up an arm-triangle choke and was moving to side control to finish it.

But Tanaka stayed calm and squeezed himself tighter to the fence, giving Yahya little space to torque the choke for the finish, and eventually he even managed to roll out and put the pressure on Yahya before the round ended.

That would set the tone for the next two rounds, as Yahya repeatedly got Tanaka down and moved into highly threatening positions, but couldn’t put him away. To his credit, Tanaka never wilted under that pressure, and at times even managed the turn the tables on Yahya. Still, he found himself on the defensive for almost the entirety of the fight, playing catch-up as soon as the fight hit the floor and never managing to launch any serious offense against the grappling artist Yahya.

In the end, all three judges gave the fight to Yahya by scores of 29-28 across the board, making it a unanimous decision win for the Brazilian.

The win makes it four in a row for Yahya, who hasn’t lost since November 2013. Tanaka has now lost two of his last three.

Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 95 results include:

• Rani Yahya def. Michinori Tanaka via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Jussier Formiga def. Dustin Ortiz via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-27, 29-28)
• Erick Silva def. Luan Chagas via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 3, 3:57
• Alan Patrick def. Stevie Ray via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
• Vicente Luque def. Hector Urbina via knockout (punches) – Round 1, 1:00
• Gregor Gillespie def. Glaico Franca via unanimous decision (29-27, 29-27, 29-27)

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 95, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

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