Before his home crowd Callan Potter got the redemption he was after.
The Victorian defeated Maki Pitolo via unanimous decision on the preliminary card of UFC 243, held at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne on Sunday, October 6.
In an overall gritty performance, Potter finished strong on top after finally getting the takedown his corner had asked for. The two exchanged blows in an action-packed opening round. “The Rockstar” found a home for his left hook a number of times which appeared to wobble the Hawaiian; though it didn’t go unreciprocated with Potter on the end of Pitolo’s combinations.
By round two the pace had mostly simmered with a good portion of the round spent with the pair clinched against the cage. Potter looked to be the fresher fighter and that continued into the third. A lateral drop by Potter in the third enabled him to get top position and land damage from three-quarter mount.
Potter teeing off on Pitolo in round 2! #UFC243 pic.twitter.com/w1oyenUWwI
— UFC (@ufc) October 6, 2019
With the performance, Potter earns his first UFC victory and moves to 18-8.
“As you get a bit older, some things diminish and what doesn’t is that grind,” he said in his post-fight interview. “I’ve always got that grind. Having to push it out with a very tough boxer, it pays off.”
“If I get on top of people, it’s night over, so he was good to defend the submissions.”
Another Aussie to pick up a win on the UFC 243 preliminary card was “The Celtic Kid” Jake Matthews, who outpointed Rostem Akman to a unanimous decision victory. It was a comfortable win for Matthews outlanding the ever-pressing forward Akman.
The Celtic Kid gets it done! #UFC243 pic.twitter.com/O5uHgyEB6U
— UFC (@ufc) October 6, 2019
With the win, Matthews rebounds from his submission loss to Anthony Rocco Martin in December and moves to 15-4.
“Sorry fans, that wasn’t the old Celtic Kid,” he said after the fight, “But the game plan was to take him down and then I was standing at the curtain and I heard the announcer say Rostem’s a good striker, so I was like, ‘you know what, we’re gonna strike with this dude’. That’s how Aussies do it.”
Brad Riddell defeats Jamie Mullarkey in early Fight of the Night contender at UFC 243
