A Washington native, Mike Easton entered the arena to a thunderous roar. After a slow start, Easton picked up the pressure in the second round and made sure he didn’t disappoint his hometown fans.
Easton pushed forward and damaged Byron Bloodworth’s lead leg with repeated leg kicks. It was a knee to the body, though, that led to the end of the fight. Clinched with Bloodworth against the cage, Easton landed two solid strikes to the body of Bloodworth.
The second knee caused Bloodworth to fold, and Easton finished the pounced until the referee pulled him off of his downed opponent. The win in his UFC debut marked Easton’s sixth straight victory.
“I always go out there and like to feel my opponents out,” told the UFC in a press release obtained by Bleacher Report. By the end of the first round, I knew everything that he had. He felt a lot weaker during the second round and I went to work. I started throwing those low leg kicks and mixing them in with punches, and the knees did the dirty work for me. I hit him hard with those! It feels absolutely unbelievable to finally be in the UFC…to debut here and get my first win here. I’ve been dreaming about this since 17 and it finally happened. This is absolutely a dream come true and the fans are in store for fights like that as long as I’m here.”
A late replacement for an injured Jeff Hougland, Bloodworth could see his UFC career come to an end as quickly as it started. The 6-2 bantamweight failed to make weight for the bout, which is something the UFC frowns upon.
Sean Smith is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA. Sean has also had his work featured on UFC.com, LowKick.com and TheMMACorner.com. For the latest insight and updates on everything MMA, you can follow Sean on Twitter @SeanSmithMMA.
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