Song Yadong closed out the UFC’s 2023 Fight Night schedule on Saturday night with a comfortable decision win over a frequently distracted Chris Gutierrez in the night’s bantamweight main event. While Gutierrez was complaining about the referee and arguing with someone in the crowd, Yadong turned to his wrestling to turn a competitive fight into a shutout on the official scorecards.
Kicks were the early story in the fight, with both men firing leg kicks and feeling out kicks to the body and head. While Gutierrez changed pace with the speed and power of his leg kicks, Yadong stayed on full power with his own shots.
Gutierrez began to mix in front kicks to the face, landing a few cleanly to Yadong’s chin but not stopping Yadong’s constant forward pressure. Just as Gutierrez started to get loose with a blend of feints and kicks in Round 2, Yadong changed tactics and scored a takedown to end up inside Gutierrez’s guard on the mat. Gutierrez was working hard to set up a triangle choke but was stopped by the referee Herb Dean who issued a hard warning for grabbing inside Yadong’s glove to control the wrist.
Fouls were flowing freely in the fight beyond the illegal glove grab, with both men suffering nasty eye pokes, but Gutierrez was clearly frustrated with Dean’s work and also began arguing with someone in the crowd, seemingly having trouble focusing on the task in front of him.
Yadong began to put more pressure on Gutierrez as the fight wore down, pushing his back toward the cage. This led to a big explosion of punches from Yadong in Round 4, first knocking Gutierrez down and then following to the ground to do work inside Gutierrez’s guard.
Yadong dominated Gutierrez on the ground for the majority of Round 4 and Gutierrez seemed primarily focused on complaining to the referee about punches he felt had landed to the back of the head.
Despite Gutierrez’s corner telling him how important it was for him to fully go for it on the feet heading into the final round, Gutierrez dove for a rolling leg lock. The attempt failed and Yadong happily jumped on top on the ground. From there, it was academic for Yadong as he worked more ground and pound to safely work to the final horn.
The official scorecards read 50-44, 50-45 and 50-45, all in Yadong’s favor.
After the fight, Yadong complained that nobody in the top 15 other than Gutierrez was willing to fight him before calling out former champion Petr Yan. Yan had already responded to Yadong’s performance with a yawn emoji on X, formerly Twitter.
Yadong responded to the emoji by saying, “Your last fight too, bro,” before again calling for Yan to step in the Octagon with him in March.
