Luana Carolina defeated Lucie Pudilova for a points win in the second fight of the evening at UFC Vegas 94.

Carolina came into the fight on the best run of her UFC career, having won two fights in a row convincingly, one by finish. With a 5-3 promotional record under her belt, she faced Czech Pudilova. Lucie is 1-2 in this, her second stint in the UFC, but most agree that she deserved the decision she won two fights ago against Joselyne Edwards. Regardless, she knew that if she lost to her Brazilian opponent, she risked losing her job, but Carolina didn’t care.

When the fight started, Carolina initially danced around the outside as Pudilova chased her, but Luana began to lean in more and more on her punches as the round progressed. By midway through the round, Lucie’s face was red. She tried to clinch and perhaps wrestle, but Carolina defended and cut her opponent’s eye open on the break with an elbow. Luana then clinch but was unable to execute the takedown, but she still hurt Pudilova with dirty boxing and another elbow, though the Czech fighter landed a takedown in the final five seconds to end the round as the winner.

Carolina picked up where she left off as round two began, controlling the distance with kicks and damaging Pudilova with punches. Lucie landed a good left of her own after a minute, however, and Luana clinched, then landed another slashing elbow on the break. Carolina won the punches for the rest of the round, attacking with her Muay Thai clinch skills when in the clinch. Pudilova fired a late takedown that was stopped, but she was able to land a hard elbow of her own. Ultimately, it would be Pudilova’s best round.

Round three was much the same. Carolina outclassed Pudilova the entire round, relying even more on kicks this round, to which her opponent had no answer. Pudilova was in shape until the end, aggressively coming forward and trying to find answers in both wrestling and striking, but she had none. Even her takedown with one minute left wasn’t enough, as she couldn’t do much damage, while Luana had done the previous four minutes.

When the judges’ score cards were read, there were no surprises: all three judges awarded Carolina points, with one even giving all three rounds.

Official result: Luana Carolina defeats Lucie Pudilova by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)