Raoni Barcelos takes UD over Ricky Simon in a BANGER of a fight!
Easily the best fight of the night. One of those true technical marvels you get between two vets of the sport that still have something in the tank but are clearly past it athletically so they have to lean heavily on their technique.
Barcelos' ability to fight hard for 15 minutes was crazy. Came out the gate looking to punish Simons in the pocket, attacking with the rear uppercut. Landed that upstairs, but also to the body with authority. Both guys were being defensively responsible. Lots of head movement. Active hands and pivots. Great stuff. Barcelos scored a takedown but immediately got reversed and paid for it as Simon rained down some nasty elbows. Barcelos rebounded from that in the 2nd with a straight boxing masterclass as he was able to continually extend exchanges by pivotting or stepping out and forcing Simon to turn. Then in the third he added some lovely knees as Simon was showing signs of ducking trying to get under the overhand right.
Just a really great fight between two vets. Had this pegged as the fight to care about and it delivered. Should have been the main event. Or co-main event.
