The hype for the main event of UFC Fight Night was wrapped around who would hit the hardest – Jeremy Stephens or Josh Emmett.
Stephens answered that question with authority Saturday night, hitting Emmett with a barrage of punches, elbows and knees in the second round to win the showdown at Amway Center.
Stephens, a veteran of 28 UFC fights, made his case for an opportunity at the championship – dropping to his knees in the center of the Octagon to address absent UFC President Dana White.
“Dana, give me my title shot,” Stephens said. “Please, please give it to me. Eleven years in the company, always putting on a show. They can run but they can’t hide. I’m coming.”
Two Central Florida fighters came up short in the nationally televised mixed-martial-arts show.
Ben Saunders drew motivation from his hometown crowd, but his opponent, Alan Jouban, was motivated by one little boy in section 102.
With his son Cage attending one of his fights for the first time, Jouban knocked Saunders out with a second-round right hook to end a preliminary contest during UFC Fight Night in Orlando.
The knockout, which left Saunders laid out on the mat for several moments, brought a sudden end to one of the most heated preliminary fights. Saunders was on his feet after a couple of minutes, but was taken to the hospital as a precaution.
Jouban said the draw of Orlando in general and Disney World in particular led him to bring his son to watch him for the first time – and it helped him focus in the moments before the fight.
“The crowd was cheering [Saunders] on,” Jouban said. “I could see he was feeding off of that and I immediately switched back and I found my son. I must have done that 50 times. [I thought,] It doesn’t matter what y’all do now because I’m locked on. It had me in the zone.”
Mike Perry of Lake Mary lost a unanimous decision to Max Griffin in the biggest upset of the night. Griffin’s first flurry of punches opened a cut on the hairline above Perry’s left eye, and he picked apart the more experienced welterweight from there, especially in a dominant second round.
Perry couldn’t find a way to land any combinations, and despite a couple of lunging shots that stunned Griffin and excited the crowd, he suffered his second consecutive loss.
More emotion was on display earlier after Rani Yahya’s third-round submission victory over Russell Doane, a win that came just 10 days after the death of Yahya’s mother. He said he returned to Brazil from training camp at American Top Team in South Florida to say goodbye, but canceling the fight was never a consideration.
“My mother was always very proud of me,” Yahya said. “She was a huge motivator, always came to watch my fights, big fan of mine, so there was no way I was going to step back. It gave me a lot of motivation to come here and win and dedicate this win to her.”
Jessica Andrade outpointed Tecia Torres in one of the most anticipated matchups of the night. The Brazilian kept Torres backpedaling through much of the first two rounds, but Torres did enough damage to keep the fight close until an Andrade takedown and punches in the final round clinched it.
Ilir Latifi weakened Immokalee native Ovince Saint Preux with a flurry of punches before choking him out standing. Saint Preux collapsed afterward but was OK.
In other results, 40-year-old Marion Reneau looked ageless in a comeback victory over Sara McMann; “Smile’n” Sam Alvey had reason to smile after crumpling the debuting Marcin Prachnio with a counter right hook; bantamweight Brian Kelleher put a good mark on his UFC resume with a decision victory over former UFC bantamweight champion Renan Barao; Angela Hill got a unanimous decision over Maryna Moroz; Alex Perez scored a unanimous decision over Eric Shelton; and Manny “The Bermuda Triangle” Bermudez lived up to his name with a triangle choke of Albert Morales.
Contact Jay Reddick at [email protected] or on Twitter @runninjay. For more mixed-martial-arts news and features, visit Ground & Pound at OrlandoSentinel.com/mma.