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In the UFC Vegas 55 main card opener, Junyong Park defeated Eryk Anders by a split decision.
It was a toe-for-toe showdown, with Park defending against over 20 takedown attempts from Anders and landing better strikes in the stand-up portion of the fight. It wasn't the easiest bout to score for the ringside judges, as the two gave the fight to Park while the third one gave it to Anders.
Both Anthony Maness and Sal D’amato awarded the victory to the South Korean fighter. However, their scoring was different. Park received two first rounds from Maness, while D’Amato gave him the last two. Overall, both of them scored 29 - 28 in favor of Park. Mike Ball also scored, but in favor of Anders.
Effectively, all three judges' scorecards read different scores for each round.
You can check out the scorecards below:
It was all the South Korean needed to make his way back to the win column after a loss to Gregory Rodrigues at UFC Fight Night: Costa vs. Vettori.
For Eric Anders, it was the second loss in a row, as he previously lost to André Muniz at UFC 269.
Eryk Anders vs. Junyong Park: Official UFC stats
The UFC Vegas 55 main card opener was a classic case of a wrestler vs. striker affair, which was mirrored in the post-fight statistics.
Both fighters threw the exact number of strikes during the opening round, 37. However, the difference is visible in significant ones, with ‘Iron Turtle’ landing 25 out of 36 and Anders only 16 out of 30.
This was also the only round when Park attempted any takedowns, with the sole unsuccessful one. However, Anders tried it six times, with one taking the Asian fighter to the ground.
In the second round, Anders landed 42% of his significant strikes, meaning 16 out of 38. Park put more pressure on with 59% of his significant strikes landing. Anders successfully took Park to the ground on two different occasions. He attempted it six times during this round.
In the final frame, the difference between the two fighters was most visible as Anders attempted 12 takedowns, but none of them were successful.
Junyong Park stuck to his striking, which proved well. His 96 strikes were all counted as significant ones, with 49 of them finding their target, mainly his opponent's head.
Junyong Park's striking advantage was enough for the two judges to give him a win, as it seems they preferred more accurate strikes over takedown attempts.
