UFC Salt Lake City results: Rodriguez tops Caceres by split decision

Yair Rodriguez and Alex Caceres put on a show in Salt Lake tonight. There was no finish - not even a knockdown. But they threw all sorts of flashy kicks, engaged in some good scrambles on the  ground, and made it fun. In the end though, Rodriguez came out on top.

As expected, they got off to a flashy start. Both men threw some spinning and jumping kicks, most of which connected. Rodriguez threw an outrageous number of kicks in the first round, and connected with a lot of them. The only thing that wobbled Caceres was a quick jumping right hand though.

The second saw more of the same, but Caceres was able to connect with a few punches and look for the clinch. Unfortunately for him, Pantera shook him off easily every time Caceres got a hold of him.

Rodriguez got to chasing a bit in the third, which allowed Caceres to slip shots and land his own. Pantera decided to beat up the legs and body more in this round, but Caceres was looking better. He was actually able to get top position for a while as well when Rodriguez went for a leg lock. The GnP from Bruce Leeroy was his most effective work in the fight thus far.

Round four was close as well, with Caceres continuing to stay out of kicking range.

Caceres got a potentially huge takedown with three minutes to go in the fight, but Rodriguez almost immediately reversed it and they returned to their feet. Rodriguez really stepped up the pressure over the rest of the fight, and while Caceres was  game, it looked like he slowed down just a bit.

Overall, it was Pantera's fight. One judge screwed it up badly though, giving Caceres a 49-46 card. Luckily, the other two saw it fairly correctly and gave Rodriguez the two 48-47 scores.