After a wild pre-fight faceoff that went viral, Ion Cutelaba and Dustin Jacoby failed to determine a winner when they stepped in the octagon at UFC on ESPN 23.
Cutelaba (15-6-1 MMA, 4-5-1 UFC) blew the doors off Jacoby (14-5-1 MMA, 2-2-1 UFC) in the opening round of Saturday’s light heavyweight bout at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. He racked up what seemed like a definitive 10-8 round on the scorecards, setting the stage for Jacoby to rally back and even things on the scorecards.
That’s exactly what he did. Jacoby won the final two rounds to force 29-28, 28-29 and 28-28 scorecards from the judges, making it a split draw.
Cutelaba did everything in his power for a first-round finish, as he’s successfully achieved 12 times in his career. Jacoby took a ton of shots and gave up a 205-pound single-round record eight takedowns, but he would not go away.
The pace slowed down big time in Round 2 and Round 3, but that allowed Jacoby to settle into a pace and output that got him the edge.
All three judges had different scorecards in the fight, which set up the split draw.
Up-to-the-minute UFC on ESPN 23 results include:
- Ion Cutelaba vs. Dustin Jacoby declared a split draw (29-28, 28-29, 28-28)
- Sean Strickland def. Krzysztof Jotko via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
- Merab Dvalishvili def. Cody Stamann via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
- Luana Pinheiro def. Randa Markos via disqualification (illegal kick) – Round 1, 4:16
- TJ Brown def. Kai Kamaka via split decision (27-30, 29-28, 29-28)
- Luana Carolina def. Poliana Botelho via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
- Loma Lookboonmee def. Sam Hughes via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- Andreas Michailidis def. KB Bhullar via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
- Felipe Colares def. Luke Sanders via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
