John Howard handed Cathal Pendred his first UFC loss on the preliminary card of UFC 189.
Howard out-struck the Punisher over three rounds to earn the split decision victory. The judges scored the fight 29-28, 28-29, 29-28 in favour of Doomsday.
The first round was extremely close with Pendred controlling the grappling exchanges while Howard landed slightly more strikes.
Doomsday began to dominate the striking battle in the second stanza, catching the Dubliner with some heavy combinations.Howard took control of the centre of the Octagon and worked his way into the pocket to punish the Punisher with his boxing.
Howard continued to have more success on the feet in the final round but Pendred didn’t make things easy for him. Pendred had a guillotine choke attempt towards the end of the round, but the American was able to escape. The fight ended with both fighters swinging for the fences.
It marked the first loss for Pendred since 2010, when he lost via TKO to Lee Chadwick. It has also left him with a 4-1 record in the UFC.
Earlier on the card, Dubliner Neil Seery lost a very exciting bout with Louis Smolka. Seery did catch the Hawaiian with some nasty elbows and good combinations but Smolka proved to be troublesome on the ground. All three judges scored the fight 30-27 in favour of Smolka.
