UFC Uruguay results: Marina Rodriguez hands Tecia Torres fourth straight defeat

Marina Rodriguez remained undefeated while picking up the biggest win of her young career with a unanimous decision over Tecia Torres.

The Brazilian showcased a diverse offensive attack blitzing Torres (10-5) with strikes and then mixing in a couple of takedowns late in the fight to secure the victory Saturday at UFC Uruguay. The scorecards read 30-27, 30-27 and 30-26 all in favor of Rodriguez (12-0-1) after three rounds.

The fighters were more than happy to exchange strikes on the feet throughout the opening round with Torres looking to find a path inside her opponent’s reach and height advantage. While Torres managed to land a few shots, Rodriguez did a good job maintaining her distance and then punishing the American Top Team fighter with knees whenever they locked up in the clinch.

The last 30 seconds of the round saw Rodriguez open up with a flurry of shots that may have swung the scorecards in her favor after a close battle through the first five minutes.

While Torres was staying busy, she was still eating more shots from Rodriguez than she could land in return. Rodriguez also stuffed several takedown attempts and then made Torres pay with more knees to the head and body.

Rodriguez began mixing things up in the final round with a takedown and a guillotine choke attempt that forced Torres to play defense yet again as she continued to scramble until working her way free. Unfortunately, Torres was fending off far more attacks from Rodriguez than she could muster with her own offense and it obviously cost her on the judges’ scorecards.

When it was all over, Rodriguez picked up her second win in the UFC while immediately serving notice to the strawweight division that a new prospect has officially arrived.

As for Torres, the former top-five ranked strawweight has now dropped her past four fights in a row, which is definitely not a position any fighter wants to be in while trying to remain on the UFC roster.