Waylon Lowe used his superior wrestling to win the first two rounds, then hung on to survive the third round and earned a hard-fought unanimous decision over Willamy Freire at the UFC Fight for the Troops 2.All three judges scored the fight 29-28 for Lowe, handing him a win that improves Lowe's professional MMA record to 10-3. Freire falls to 18-4.
Lowe went for a takedown at the outset and got it, and he stayed on top for more than three minutes. Freire, however, was very comfortable on his back and was attempting to submit Lowe with a kimura. Surprisingly, referee Dan Miragliotta stood them up with about 1:45 to go in the first round, even though there was plenty of action on the ground. That seemed to help Lowe, who knocked Freire down with a hard punch and got back on top of him on the ground, doing enough to win the first round.
Early in the second round Lowe rocked Freire with a couple of punches and tried to go for another takedown, but this time Freire did a nice job of keeping his back against the fence to stay on his feet. Lowe did eventually get Freire down, but Freire immediately responded by attempting a triangle choke. Lowe, however, simply picked Freire up and slammed him down, showing impressive strength. Lowe stayed on top for another minute before Miragliotta stood them up again, giving Lowe another chance to hit Freire with a hard punch and win the round handily.
The action got intense a minute into the third round, when an exchange on the feet first left Lowe on his knees, then resulted in them both falling to the ground and Freire getting into mount. Lowe appeared to be running out of steam, while Freire looked fresh, and Freire landed a series of punches to Lowe's face. Lowe managed to survive and get back to his feet, however, and when Lowe landed another takedown with a minute to go, he just had to stay on top long enough to ride out the round, winning the decision.
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