Fight to Win 161

Cyborg & Pato Win Decisions, Tex Johnson Taps Maidana At Fight To Win 161

Cyborg & Pato Win Decisions, Tex Johnson Taps Maidana At Fight To Win 161

See the results from Fight to Win 161, including Roberto "Cyborg" Abreu vs Tim Spriggs, Diego Oliveira vs Gabriel Sousa and Tex Johnson vs Arnaldo Maidana.

Jan 23, 2021
Cyborg & Pato Win Decisions, Tex Johnson Taps Maidana At Fight To Win 161

Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu defeated Tim Spriggs in the main event of Fight to Win 161 tonight. Cyborg won by unanimous decision in the 10-minute no-gi match.

This was Cyborg’s first grappling match of the year, just a few weeks after won the 2020 FloGrappling Grappler Of The Year Award.

The early part of the match was a stalemate, with neither competitor doing much to bring the match to the ground. Cyborg achieved the first convincing moment of the match with less than four minutes remaining. He caught Spriggs in a front headlock, and used the position to trip him.

Cyborg earned another takedown with less than two minutes on the clock, which seemed to seal his victory.

In the co-main event, Diego “Pato” Oliveira defeated Gabriel Sousa via split decision. Sousa had controlled the early phase of the gi matchup, opening with a series of slams and dictating the positional game. 

Oliveira turned the tides toward the end of the match with a short burst of offense, attacking a triangle and switching to an armbar. Although Sousa escaped quickly, the attack put Oliveira ahead with the only significant attack of the match.

Aaron "Tex" Johnson earned the most exciting submission on the main card, a razor armlock against Arnaldo Maidana. Johnson, a well-known leglock player, submitted Maidana last year with a footlock, and hinted that he would look to play a similar game in the rematch.

Instead, he rushed to guard and attacked to a triangle, than switched his focus to the short armbar, which he finished in slightly more than a minute. It was one of the fastest submissions of the evening.

Click to watch the full event replay of Fight to Win 161