Uriah Hall overcomes broken toe, defeats Thiago Santos at UFC 175
LAS VEGAS -- When he first appeared on the world MMA state on The Ultimate Fighter, Uriah Hall drew near hysteria for some of his early knockouts. The excitement over his potential was so great, UFC president Dana White memorably predicted we might be looking at the next Anderson Silva.
But Hall went through some growing pains, struggling under the weight of the spotlight. After deciding he would no longer pay any mind to the hype machine, Hall is finally beginning to manifest his talents.
Facing Thiago Santos at UFC 175, the dynamic middleweight showed off the flashy skills in a way we hadn't seen since his days on TUF, outclassing Santos in a unanimous decision.
The judges scored it 30-27, 29-28, 29-28.
Just as impressive as the win, Hall went through the last 10 minutes with a broken toe. He said he could feel the bone shift as he moved, but you'd never know it from his slick lateral movement and full arsenal of kicks
Santos got off to a good start in the first with spinning attacks and right hands, but as the round went on, Hall started to impose his will, getting loose and scoring with straight rights and power jabs.
As Santos began to tire, the speed differential began to show, and Hall exploited it with a series of creative striking attacks, including spinning backfists and spin kicks. Santos was able to eat everything that came his way, but was rarely ever able to mount any effective counters.
According to FightMetric stats, final strikes landed were fairly even, 51-50 for Santos, but Hall definitely had the bout's best moments, including some powerful ground punches in round one.
Hall has now won two straight in improving to 9-4. Santos dropped to 9-3.
