Back at the TUF 14 Finale, Dennis Bermudez was a raw talent, one who lost in the tournament final to Diego Brandao.
He hasn’t lost again since.
The Long Island featherweight is a much more polished fighter now, and he put all those skills on display in a third-round TKO victory over Jimy Hettes on Saturday night at UFC 171. A big knee finished the bout in Dallas at the 2:57 mark.
It was Bermudez’s sixth straight win.
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In round one, Bermudez (13-3) looked like he was trying to break Khabib Nurmagomedov’s single-fight takedown record, as he took Hettes down at will, including one half takedown/half slam in which he picked Hettes up and dropped him to the mat.
In the second, Bermudez picked Hettes apart in the standup, at one point knocking out Hettes’ mouthpiece with a punch and then nearly finishing the fight on the ground.
By the time the final round rolled around, it didn’t take long for him to get Hettes to the mat. Hettes, a submission specialist, wanted it to stay there, but when Bermudez gave him no choice but to get it back standing, Bermudez launched the big knee to the head which ended things.
Bermudez’s win streak, of course, includes his 2013 Fight of the Year candidate against Matt Grice at UFC 157. Grice, who was nearly killed in a car accident last September, was cageside for UFC 171, and Bermudez gave him a fist bump on his way to the cage.
Hettes (11-2) has dropped two of his past three fights.