Alice Pereira Stops Daria Zhelezniakova by First-Round TKO
Alice Pereira defeated Daria Zhelezniakova by TKO in the women’s bantamweight bout at UFC Fight Night: Allen vs. Duncan. The stoppage came at the end of the first round at Meta APEX in Las Vegas on Saturday.
Pereira landed 33 of 48 total strikes at 68.8 percent and 20 of 32 significant strikes at 62.5 percent. Zhelezniakova connected on 7 of 11 total strikes at 63.6 percent and 6 of 10 significant strikes at 60 percent. Neither fighter scored a knockdown.
The Brazilian secured the only takedown of the fight, finishing 1 of 1 attempts. She moved to mount and landed elbows and punches that opened a cut on Zhelezniakova. The Russian was examined by the cageside physician after the round.
Zhelezniakova told referee Jason Herzog she did not want to continue. The official result was recorded as a TKO by retirement at 5:00 of round one. Pereira did not attempt a submission. Zhelezniakova finished the round on the bottom.
Pereira moves to 8-1. Zhelezniakova falls to 10-4. The 20-year-old Brazilian had stopped Hailey Cowan by knee in April. Zhelezniakova, 30, had lost a unanimous decision to Melissa Croden in her previous outing.
The finish is Pereira’s second consecutive stoppage in the UFC. She is the youngest woman on the current roster and has now won two of her three Octagon appearances. Zhelezniakova absorbed the early pressure on the feet, absorbed the ground-and-pound from mount, and chose not to come out for a second round.
Pereira leaves Las Vegas with another first-round finish on her record. Zhelezniakova leaves with the loss and the cut that ended the night after five minutes. The bantamweight division moves on without a new booking for either fighter.
