What's the story?
Jordan Rinaldi defeated Jason "The Kid" Knight in dominant fashion scoring a lopsided unanimous decision victory at UFC 230 prelims. Rinaldi imposed his grappling game on Jason Knight, taking Knight down at will and imposing total control on Knight.
In case you didn't know
Featherweight prospects Jason Knight and Jordan Rinaldi met in the UFC octagon on the featured bout of the FS1 Prelims of UFC 230 in New York City.
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Jason Knight made his return to the octagon with an eye for redemption after having lost his last 3 fights and his opponent was to be the newcomer, Jordan Rinaldi. Knight racked up a 4 fight win streak before losing to Ricardo Lamas at UFC 214 and then losing another 2 fights after that. Rinaldi is relatively new in the UFC with just 3 fights 1 win and 2 losses in the octagon.
Both young prospects, Knight and Rinaldi looked to make a dominant statement and re-establish themselves as future contenders in a stacked Featherweight division.
The heart of the matter
Jordan Rinaldi was on his top game throughout the fight as he dominated Jason Knight using a grappling intensive game. Rinaldi completely shut down Knight's apparent game plan to 'stand and bang' and put him under pressure from the get-go.
Rinaldi scored 3 takedowns out of an attempted 4 and secured a control time of near-about 12 minutes in a 15-minute fight. On the mat, Knight was absolutely no match for Rinaldi's grappling and Rinaldi practically did whatever he wanted to him.
Jordan Rinaldi attempted a rear-naked choke in the fight which was defended by Knight and also gave us a highlight in the process.
What's next?
With a win over fellow prospect and fan favourite, Jason Knight on one of the biggest cards of the year, Jordan Rinaldi has surely caught the eyes of the MMA world and fans all around.
Relatively unknown heading into this fight, Rinaldi has surely announced his arrival in the UFC with the win over Knight today and can hope to get a top-15 match-up in his next outing.
On the other hand, with 4 losses in a row now, the future looks bleak for Jason Knight. With second chances not frequent in the UFC, we can just hope that Knight turns it around soon or we might be seeing his exit from the premier promotion