This is the UFC 201 live blog for Ryan Benoit vs. Fredy Serrano, a flyweight bout at Saturday night's UFC event at Philips Arena in Atlanta, Ga.
Benoit, who has lost two of his past three fights, will face Serrano, who has won his only two fights on the UFC, on the main card.
Check out the UFC 201 live blog below.
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Round 1: Flyweight bout to get us underway on the UFC 201 PPV. Benoit taking the fight on 10 days notice. Referee for this one is Blake Brice. Benoit takes center. Serrano stands on the outside waving his hands. They trade simultaneous kicks, which throws Serrano off balance. Serrano looking for the ax kick, can't get. Nice body kick from Serrano. And now Benoit comes in and in his aggression takes down Benoit. In side control, now, and driving. Spinning wheel kick misses, and now Serrano takes a big shot. Now Benoit has got a guillotine, and can't get it. Now Benoit looks to return the favor, wants to take Serrano down. They are on the fence. Nice exchange as they break, and Benoit lands a nice right hand. Serrano is throwing big shots here. Serrano trying to end this thing with one shot. Nice leg kick from Benoit. Serrano with Benoit on the cage, but eases off and throws a parting shot. Ax kick by Serrano, can't land. Benoit answers with a leg kick. Benoit doing a good job holding the center of the Octagon. They have an exchange after the horn...Serrano thought Benoit threw something after the the bell. MMA fighting scores R1 for Benoit.
Round 2: Benoit back to center. Big right hand from Serrano, and that was close to hammering home. Benoit doing a good job nixing the wrestling so far. And a solid left hand from Benoit. Now Serrano ducks under and pushes Benoit up again the cage, and holds him there. Serrano with an ax kick, can't get it, and Serrano slams Benoit down. Trying to get into side control, and some blood now. From Serrano's head. Serrano throwing big. Benoit the persistent man so far, and he defends the takedown here. He thwarts that one, and lands some nice punches. Leg kick from Benoit. And now Serrano, in his typical wild fashion, tries to take Benoit's head off. Can't land, but takes Benoit down for the fourth time in the fight. See what he can do here — so far, he can't do much on the ground. Now a north-south situation, and he's landing his thigh/hips into Benoit's forehead. Now he spins into half-guard, and he's landing. He gets up, and the round ends. MMA Fighting scores R2 for Serrano, 10-9 (19-19)
Round 3: They touch gloves. Take down from Serrano right away, and right back into guard. We'll see if he can do anything from here. Some warnings from the ref to do something. And he's trying to come to life with some punches. Crowd letting out some boos, and the ref stands them up. This time Serrano tries a telegraphed takedown, just crawling, and Benoit sees it and ends up on top. Now Benoit on top, trying to do something, but Serrano easily stands back up. Tumble with nothing to it from Serrano, and the crowd boos. Weird fight. Nice kick landed from Benoit, but Serrano catches it. Another kick from Serrano, and Benoit jumped right over it. Big head kick from Benoit, and an uppercut followed by a shot to the body. Good stuff. Both guys tired, huffing for air. Nice heavy leg kick from Benoit, and he clinches up. On fence, as Benoit dictates. Nice couple of shots, ended with a right hand from Benoit. They square off at the end standing in the middle. MMA Fighting scores R3 for Benoit, 10-9. (29-28 for Benoit overall)
UFC 201 official results: Ryan Benoit def. Fredy Serrano via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)