Tarec Saffiedine sent a message to the welterweight division after kicking his way to a unanimous decision win over Hyun Gyu Lim in the main event of the UFC’s first event of 2014.
After a close first round, Saffiedine began landing power shots in the second. In the third, he continued to find a home for effective strikes and dropped Lim on three occasions, once with a punch and twice with kicks to the leg.
Lim survived the third and came out aggressive to start the fourth despite clearly favouring his left leg. Saffiedine, who became the first Belgian to compete in the UFC, weathered the storm and dropped the South Korean again with more leg kicks. Then, along the cage, Saffiedine rocked Lim with a flying knee.
The final round saw Saffiedine continue to pick Lim apart before fading late. Lim rocked Saffiedine in the dying seconds of the fight, but could not finish and Saffiedine picked up his fifth in a row.
“I was pretty hurt,” said Saffiedine, who credited his coaches for giving him a good game plan. “He caught me with a good punch. I was dizzy a little bit.”
Saffiedine (15-3) hadn’t fought since defeating Nate Marquart to become the last ever Strikeforce champion one year ago at the now-defunct promotion’s final event.
Lim (12-4-1) had a seven-fight win streak snapped in just the fourth fight of his career to go the distance.
Saffiedine has now gone the distance in seven straight fights and in 10 of his last 11 — the last two were five-round affairs.
Hawaiian fighters dominate UFC Fight Night 34 prelims
In the co-main event, Japanese star Tatsuya Kawajiri won his long-awaited UFC debut, handing Sean Soriano his first career loss. After controlling the majority of the first round, Kawajiri (33–7–2) was able to take Soriano to the ground early in the second, gain a dominant position and sink in a rear-naked choke. Soriano appeared to tap out, but the referee didn’t notice it and seconds later the American was unconscious.
Brazilian Luiz Dutra was disqualified after landing a series of illegal elbows to the back of Kiichi Kunimoto’s head in the first round of their welterweight matchup. Dutra landed the illegal blows as Kunimoto was attempting a takedown along the cage. The Japanese fighter was unable to continue and the fight was stopped. He was removed on a stretcher, but acknowledge the applauding crowd on his way out.
In the opening bout of the main card, bantamweight standout Kyung-Ho Kang dominated Shunichi Shimizu and earned a third-round submission win. Early in the fight, Kang had Shimizu in trouble with triangle and armbar attempts, but was deducted two points for landing two illegal, 12-to-6 elbows. Despite the point deduction, Kang continued to thrash his opponent and eventually secured an arm-triangle that forced a tap.
The event was the first UFC’s trip to Singapore.
