Whatever about the result, Randa Markos and Aisling Daly put on a scrap that was deserving of a main card slot rather than a prelim opener.
Aisling Daly’s second outing in the UFC finished with a unanimous decision loss to TUF 20 castmate Randa Markos.
Markos clearly took the first round, opening up with the crisper striking and using energetic grappling to keep Daly on her back.
But the Irishwoman rebounded in the second round and put Markos in danger on the mat, arguably landing the most significant strike of the contest when a slicing elbow cut open the Canadian.
With Markos tiring, Daly pushed forward in the third round and it looked like all the momentum was with “Ais the Bash” but Markos rallied and used the more technical approach in the final five minutes to earn the judges’ decision by 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28.
What will piss off fans of Daly’s is that 30-27 because the second round looked relatively decisive in favour of the Dubliner but that mattered little in the overall context of the fight, which Markos took deservedly.
Daly is now 1-1 in the UFC and 15-6 overall but the heart shown in this fight would suggest that there’s a lot more to see from Daly in the future as her unorthodox style is a nightmare for any fighter.
