When the UFC Fight Night event rolled into San Antonio, Texas this past Saturday night, most fans could have guessed that two locally trained fighters would return to New Mexico with victories; not as many fans could have guessed that those same two fighters would also come home with their pockets lined with 50-thousand dollars extra in their pockets. It is safe to say the top Featherweight contender out of the Jackson-Winkeljohn gym and the rising prospect out of FIT NHB had great weekends in the Lone Star State.
When Cub Swanson took the walk down to the Octagon this past Saturday night, a betting man could count on a few things happening once the cage doors were closed. The easiest of those things to recognize was that Swanson and opponent Jeremy Stephens were going to engage in an entertaining stand-up affair that would highlight Swanson’s technically sound striking and Stephens resounding striking power. Swanson had won five straight and Stephens was 4-0 since moving to Featherweight; the second easily noticeable thing for a fight fan was that someone was taking the next step to a title shot with a victory.
Swanson used an array of strikers, including several unorthodox kicks to keep Stephens from getting into rhythm Saturday night. Photo Credit: Will Fox / The Fox Identity
After 25-minutes of action, Cub Swanson would put together a masterpiece of a performance that saw only a couple of bad decisions leading to dangerous moments in a fight that Swanson dominated with crisp strikes, unorthodox kicks, proper footwork and head movement, and excellent cardio to push the pace for five rounds. On several instances, Swanson had Stephens badly hurt with kicks to the body and would follow-up with hard, accurate punches to a wobbled opponent.
Swanson would be the recipient of a post-fight award as Swanson was recognized as one-half of the “Fight of the Night”. Swanson banked fifty thousand dollars to compliment his income and would inch one step closer to a title shot. While many speculate that he is in line for Champion Jose Aldo, depending on timing Swanson might need to fight once more before being able to seek out redemption vs. Aldo, Swanson has longed discussed his desire to avenge the 8-second loss to Aldo back in 2009.
While Swanson’s victory and bonus was well-deserved, a homegrown product of New Mexico showed equal impressiveness if not surpassing that off Swanson being that this fighter is only 20-years old. Tucumcari native and FIT NHB representative Ray Borg scored the quickest submission victory in Flyweight history on Saturday night when he sunk in a fight ending rear-naked choke on opponent Shane Howell.
The fight would be Borg’s Sophomore UFC effort as his debut came on two weeks notice against a top-15 Flyweight. In that fight, Borg boosted his stock tremendously despite being on the wrong end of a razor close split decision. While most felt Borg did enough to win two of three rounds, the performance put Borg on the map and earned him the label by many of “the future of the division”.
Against Howell, Borg showed once again why he is as dangerous of a fighter that anyone will encounter. After landing a crisp strike, Borg shot in for a lightning quick single leg on Howell and in a swift single movement, Borg would take back control and work his way to a fight ending choke. The win was significant for Borg, the 20-year old now has two UFC fights under his belt and he has yet to crack 10 professional bouts in his career. There is certainly big things coming for “The Taz-Mexican Devil”.
Borg would secure his own post-fight bonus as his grappling wizardry earned him the “Performance of the Night” bonus that awarded him 50-thousand dollars to supplement his show and win money. This definitely is just cracking the surface for the high ceiling of potential for Borg and this could be the first of many slick submissions earn the Tucumcari native some extra income in his career.
It was a great night for Swanson and Borg both in the cage and out; join us here at SWFight in sending our congratulations to the fighters for their performances and the hard-work that they put in everyday to be able to achieve the success that they achieved on Saturday night.
