Spain isn’t exactly renowned for producing elite mixed martial artists.
But Conor McGregor was hoping that the only Spanish representative on his Team Europe would get the job done and push them to a 6-3 advantage over Urijah Faber’s Team U.S.A.
McGregor selected Abner Lloveras to take on Jason Gonzalez in the ninth fight of TUF 22.
The fight started like a straight kickboxing bout with both men happy to exchange on the feet before Lloveras dived on a leg after a minute but the takedown attempt was easily defended by Gonzalez who got an underhook and backed up into the fence.
Despite the best attempts at switching to a double, Gonzalez’s defence stood resolute and he made the veteran Spaniard pay by breaking with a knee, left straight and left roundhouse kick.
Knowing that his opponent would continue to change levels, Gonzalez decided to up his knee output in the hope of catching Lloveras dropping down.
It was the Team U.S.A. fighter who pressured the better and he kept scoring from the plum clinch but Gonzalez’s forward momentum was halted when Lloveras scored his first takedown of the bout.
Lloveras landed directly in mount position and fired off a few nice shots but McGregor’s philosophy had clearly rubbed off on the BJJ brown belt who favoured position over submission and maintained top control, finishing out a 10-9 round with ground and pound.
The second round started with Lloveras looking tremendously fluid on his feet, beating Gonzalez to the punch in every exchange of the first minute before Gonzalez threw a spinning back kick that Lloveras used to grab a hold of a leg and pressed his opponent against the fence.
Lloveras got him down again for a brief second and threatened with a back-take before switching to a straight trip and, once more, landed in mount.
After Gonzalez bridged, the armbar looked to be there for the Spaniard but he was unable to isolate the right arm properly. He kept his wits about him, though, and ended up on top in the scramble.
Gonzalez managed to get his feet on the cage and exploded off but Lloveras was too wily and stayed glued to the hips of the American which inevitably led to yet another takedown.
Overall, Gonzales just looked outmatched in every grappling exchange and the experienced Spanish lightweight had just too many tools in his box for the 10 minutes.
Team Europe have now won twice as many fights as Team U.S.A. so far in this season and Urijah Faber hasn’t tasted victory in the last four bouts.
He’ll get the chance to regain some pride next week when the quarter-finals get underway.
Catch The Ultimate Fighter at 3am GMT every Thursday morning on BT Sport (part of the Setanta pack in Ireland). Repeated at 10pm GMT on Thursdays.
