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#3. Yana Kunitskaya vs. Aspen Ladd (Women's Bantamweight)
Aspen Ladd is in no hurry to go after the title as she accepted a fight against the dangerous Yana Kunitskaya. Ladd was coming off a crushing loss to Germaine de Randamie, which was also her first pro MMA loss.
Kunitskaya was on the up as well as she came into this fight on the back of two impressive wins.
Round 1: Ladd started quickly with the left-hand shots. Yana caught her in the body lock and tried to get the underhooks for the takedown.
The referee broke them up after Kunitskaya grabbed the fence twice during the clinch.
They clinched again after a brief stand-up exchange. Ladd initiated the clinch but Kunitskaya ended up in the dominant position. She landed knees to Ladd's body in the clinch. Yana was doing a fine job of preventing Ladd from slipping away. Ladd did a great job of using Kunitskaya's weight to push the Russian down to the mat.
This was now Ladd's territory. She got into side control and landed a few nice elbows from the top. Ladd transitioned well to Kunitskaya's back. What followed was an unhinged barrage of strikes from the back from Ladd. She screeched loudly after every strike, however, Ladd lost her position as a result of the wild outburst before the round ended.
Round 2: Yana began by attacking the lead leg of Ladd with kicks.
Ladd got in the jabs before shooting for the takedown. She attempted to get in the double underhooks but Yana showed tremendous improvement in her takedown defence. Yana flipped her over against the cage and landed some solid knees to the body.
Yana's control in the clinch was impressive. The Thai clinch ended with both women back in the centre. Ladd got back to her game plan by going for the takedown. This time, Aspen got the fight to the mat.
She was in Yana's guard and the attempted ground and pound landed in bits and pieces. Kunitskaya tried to get her arms around Ladd to prevent eating strikes on her back. Ladd stayed in the full guard position until the end.
Round 3: Ladd's corner told her to go out there and punch the heck out of Kunitskaya's face. The advice from her corner, or the nature of it, was hilarious! It may have even negatively affected Ladd.
However, it worked!
Ladd came in, missed a right jab and landed a perfect follow-up left hook that landed flush. Kunitskaya dropped down to the mat and Aspen went on to unleash a vicious assault.
Her coach kept asking for more and Ladd didn't disappoint. The elbow strikes kept raining down as Yana covered up and the referee stepped in to stop the fight.
Result: Aspen Ladd def. Yana Kunitskaya via TKO (left hook and strikes) (0:33, Round Three)
That was some brilliant corner work from Ladd's team as her head coach's aggressive pep talk before the third round woke her up, which eventually led to a left hook from hell.
This was an emphatic finish for Ladd!
