ANAHEIM, Calif. – Rinya Nakamura beat Carlos Vera with a unanimous decision Saturday on the preliminary card at UFC 298 at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.
Take a look inside the fight with Nakamura, who at around 14-1 was by far the biggest betting favorite on the card.
Rinya Nakamura vs. Carlos Vera
Result: Rinya Nakamura def. Carlos Vera via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Updated records: Nakamura (9-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC), Vera (11-4 MMA, 0-1 UFC)
Key stats: Nakamura had more than 13 minutes of total control time in the 15-minute fight.
Nakamura on the fight's key moment
“I feel good that I won, but I’m not satisfied with my performance. Carlos was tougher than I expected. He tried to attack many times from the (bottom). I got kind of defensively tired, so that’s why I’m not satisfied.”
Nakamura on having more fan-friendly performances
“(Hearing) booing from the arena is the most damage to me. I need to brush up every part of my martial arts. I just had four years to transition to MMA, so I have a lot of things to do.”
Nakamura on what he wants next
“I want to fix (my hand) as soon as possible and I’m back to practice with the other. I can train the other parts accept my right hand, so I’ll still go hard training and I want to be back at June. I can’t choose the opponent with tonight’s performance, so anyone is fine for me.”
To hear more from Nakamura, check out the video above.
UFC 298 Images
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 298.
