Robbie Peralta ekes out split decision win over Rony Jason
It's never an easy spot for a foreigner to go to Brazil and come away with a victory, but Robbie Peralta managed to get the job done getting a split decision nod against former Ultimate Fighter Brazil champion Rony Jason.
The two featherweights duked it out over three rounds with the majority of the action taking place on the feet. Jason was ultra confident fighting in his backyard of Brazil, looking to land throughout the fight with some flashy moves including a series of spinning back elbows and jumping knee strikes.
While the elbows found their mark, Peralta walked through them without suffering any damage and none of the knee strikes ever landed. It was likely Jason's downfall that he continuously looked for the one shot finish instead of putting together any kind of combinations, unlike Peralta who unloaded punches in barrages a few times during the fight.
In the second round, Peralta's flurry resulted in one of his best punches of the entire fight when he slammed his fist into Jason's jaw after swinging three or four in a row to back the Brazilian up towards the cage.
In the end, Peralta outlanded Jason 81 to 40 in total strikes and 51 to 30 in significant strikes, which obviously earned him the nod on the judges' scorecards where he picked up the victory. The Brazilian crowd booed loudly in disagreement with the decision, but in a close fight it appeared Peralta's volume of strikes accumulating over three rounds got him the win.
The final scores came back twice for Peralta (30-27, 29-28) with one judge giving all three rounds to Jason (30-27) thus the split decision
The victory marks Peralta's fourth inside the Octagon and bumps him to a two fight win streak while also handing Jason only his second defeat since competing on The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil
