Rodrigo Nascimento made the most out of his Octagon debut earlier tonight (Sat., May 16, 2020) at UFC on ESPN 8 live on ESPN/ESPN+ from inside VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla., when the heavyweight newcomer submitted knockout artist Don’Tale Mayes via second-round rear-naked choke.
Both men landed early but it was Nascimento who controlled form range with whipping leg kicks. Mayes threatened with power punches along the way but wasn’t able to connect when he needed it most. Nascimento was able to successfully take Mayes down whenever the action tied up along the cage and that didn’t change in the second round. Nascimento scored the takedown, landed a few punches, quickly took back control, and easily locked in the rear-naked choke to force the tap.
Check out the video highlights above courtesy of UFC/ESPN.
With this performance, Nascimento enters the UFC’s heavyweight division in dramatic fashion and could end up getting his wish of fighting veteran Chase Sherman his next time out. Despite being a submission expert with tremendous finishing ability on the ground, Nascimento showed promising striking in his debut and could be a name to watch moving forward.
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