Immediately following John Dodsons great TKO victory over T.J. Dillashaw, his training partner Diego Brandao won the finals for his weight class, becoming the first ever featherweight ultimate fighter. Brandao beat fellow top featherweight Dennis Bermudez by submission with about 10 seconds remaining in the first round, catching him with an absolutely spectacular arm bar. The one round fight was incredibly action packed, with both fighters landing hard shots, and both knocking their opponent to the canvas on separate occasions. As a massive Diego fan all through season 14 of The Ultimate Fighter, I was actually surprised to see Bermudez put up the great fight that he did. Diegos intensity can be matched by very few in the Octagon, and in a conversation before the fight started I even channeled my inner Amir Sadollah from season 7 of TUF, predicting “Diego to win… By murder”.
The victory by Brandao was made even more impressive by the fact that it came by submission. Throughout the show Brandao had finished all of his opponents by first round KO, so seeing him win the finals by submissions showed that he is not just a one trick pony. The arm bar itself was also fantastic, with Diego being caught on the bottom of Bermudez but managing to catch his arm, flip him over and have him tapping before he even started to crank it. This win was an important one for Diego, with him claiming throughout the whole TUF season that he planned to use his money from a UFC contract to take care of his family, and other families in need in his native Brazil. With a six figure contract Diego should be well on his way to being able to do this, and the additional $80,000 he made from receiving both Submission of the Night and Fight of the Night should aid this considerably. I cannot wait to see Diego fight again, and with John Dodson winning the bantamweight final, the sky is the limit for this year’s TUF winners.
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