Recap: UFC Portland – Lineker vs. Dodson

John Lineker won a hard fought victory over John Dodson in the main event and definitely it didn’t come easy

Over the course of the five rounds it became clear that Dodson was happy to strike and move and John Lineker wanted to stand and brawl. There were some wild exchanges in the fight that saw Lineker come out on top time and time again, despite Dodson’s best efforts.
Dodson used his superior movement and speed to frustrate Lineker early on, which caused Lineker to mock Dodson mid-fight, accusing him of running away. As the fight wore on, Lineker dragged Dodson in to firefights with him and the huge punches from ‘Hands of Stone’ started to effect Dodson more and more
Dodson took Lineker’s back late in the fifth round but did nothing with it and Lineker finished the fight strong, ultimately handing him the split decision victory in what was a very good fight.

Alex Oliveira and Will Brooks spent the first round of their fight hugging out any animosity between them up against the cage

Oliveira seemed intent on playing a clinch heavy game throughout the first round of this fight, causing a rib injury to Brooks in the process. Will Brooks opened the second round with a takedown on Oliveira that saw him end up mounting his opponent and eventually taking the back. Brooks couldn’t finish from the position and Oliveira continued his game plan of a clinch heavy attack, taking Brooks to the ground on multiple occasions
‘Ill Will’ managed to take Oliveira’s back again late in the second round but couldn’t do anything with it
Early in the third frame, Oliveira dropped Brooks briefly with a left hand and used this to clinch with Brooks against the cage, landing takedowns that Brooks had no answer for. After eating some reletnless ground and pound from Oliveira, the referee stepped in and stopped the fight late in the round.
Oliveira decided to mock a prone Brooks, which didn’t go down well to say the least. ‘Cowboy’ may have taken away the win here, but after missing weight and his antics after the fight had finished, it’s really hard to give him any credit for this performance.

Zak Ottow continued the momentum set by Brandon Moreno in the first fight of the main card by winning a split decision over veteran, Josh Burkman

This was nothing more than a tedious kickboxing fight, with neither fighter causing any significant damage throughout the three rounds.
Ottow arguably had the better of the striking exchanges, which didn’t take a lot, but it was deemed enough in the eye of the judges to get the upset win and probably send Josh Burkman his pink slip from the UFC.

Brandon Moreno caused a huge upset on his UFC debut and sent some ripples through the UFC flyweight division in the process

After being trapped in Smolka’s guard early on, Moreno got back to his feet and, after Smolka attempted a takedown, Moreno dived in on a guillotine. At the second attempt of securing the grip, submitted number eight ranked flyweight, Louis Smolka in the first round.