Prior to Friday night, the UFC record for fastest back-to-back wins in the post-tournament, Unified Rules era was 14 days. Chris Leben turned the trick in 2010.
But Chas Skelly has done Leben one better. Fighting on 13 days’ turnaround, the Team Takedown featherweight dominated Sean Soriano at UFC Fight Night 50. Skelly won via unanimous decision at Foxwoods Casino, on across-the-board scores of 30-27.
In the opening round, Skelly seemed to spend the entire five minutes working for submissions, getting a standing Soriano’s back at one point and nearly trapping him in a calf slicer at another. In the second, Soriano scored in the standup early, but Skelly once again managed to get it to the ground and control things.
In the final round, Skelly’s gas tank appeared to be approaching empty, but he still managed to control the Blackzilian on the ground.
Skelly, who defeated Tom Niinimaki via first-round submission on Aug. 23, improved to 13-1.
Leben set the previous record by defeating Aaron Simpson via second-round submission on June 19, 2010; then submitted Yoshihiro Akiyama in the closing seconds of a memorable UFC 116 bout on July 3. Both fights were in Las Vegas.