UFC Fight Night 96 results: Ketlen Vieira's strong takedown game tops Kelly Faszholz in UFC debut

PORTLAND, Ore. – Kelly Faszholz started slow and then rallied late against Ketlen Vieira, but in the end it wasn’t enough.

With a suffocating ground game, Vieira (7-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) eeked out a victory over a game Faszholz (3-2 MMA, 0-2 UFC), taking the fight via split-decision victory with scores of 28-29, 29-28, and 29-28.

The women’s bantamweight bout opened up the preliminary card of today’s UFC Fight Night 96 event at Moda Center in Portland, Ore. It streamed on UFC Fight Pass ahead of additional prelims on FS2 and a main card on FS1.

Vieira didn’t wait long before demonstrating exactly what she hoped to do in this fight, and for the first two rounds she did it well. Using a series of takedowns, Vieira aimed to grind out a slow, gradual win inside Faszholz’s guard, and she spent most of the first and second frames doing that.

For her part Faszholz struggled to get her striking game going early, and often gave Vieira too many opportunities to counter her attacks with easy takedowns. Once on the mat, Faszholz was unable to get back to her feet on her own, and was left instead to rely on referee Dan Miragliotta’s stand-ups.

Still, that approach took a lot out of Vieira, and as she faded in the third round Faszholz went on the attack with sharp left hooks and lunging rights. She connected with several hard blows in the first half of the final round, and seemed to have Vieira on the run.

But as Faszholz pressed her advantage, she eventually pressed too far. An ambitious jumping knee gave Vieira the opening she needed for another takedown, and with that she halted Faszholz’s momentum and wound up finishing the fight with the same strategy that allowed her to control most of it.

Vieira’s victory in her UFC debut maintains her perfect professional record. Faszholz has now lost two straight.

Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 96 results include:

• Ketlen Vieira def. Kelly Faszholz via split decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 96, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(MMAjunkie’s John Morgan and Steven Marrocco contributed to this report on site in Portland.)