Mario Bautista made quick work of Vinicius Oliveira in the UFC Vegas 113 main event after he snatched a fight-ending rear-naked choke in the second round, but before setting foot in the octagon, Bautista had some… interesting words for his opponent.
A day earlier at the weigh-ins, Bautista came nose-to-nose with Oliveira, who was apparently ratcheting up the trash talk in anticipation of the fight. Bautista revealed what Oliveira said to him during the heated faceoff and his response, which apparently didn’t anger “LokDog” as much as make him laugh.
“He got close and he was like, ‘Smile while you can’ and then he just got too close,” Bautista said at the UFC Vegas 113 post-fight press conference. “I was like, ‘It seems like you want to kiss me.’ I think I broke his character. He started laughing.
“Then he said he was going to beat me worse than he did Kyler [Phillips], my training partner.”
The intensity didn’t stop when they got in the cage because Bautista says Oliveira was still talking to him when the referee brought them together in the center before the fight got underway.
Oliveira didn’t forget what Bautista said to him and he repaid the favor just before they clashed.
“Even when we faced off before our fight, he even said the same thing. ‘You want to kiss me now?’” Bautista said. “I blew him a couple of kisses before I beat him up. It’s all part of the show.”
As far as the fight goes, Bautista put on one of his most complete performances to date as he soundly beat Oliveira in every facet of the game, particularly whenever the fight hit the floor.
From some early ground-and-pound to the scramble at the close of the second round where Bautista locked up the rear-naked choke submission, he was in control from start to finish.
“It’s surreal,” Bautista said. “First main event, five-rounder against a tough opponent. Just watching his highlight reel all week, you don’t want to end up on that side. For me to come out on top, it just feels amazing.
“All those transitions. Going from the takedowns, passing, getting into that crucifix, him giving up an arm, me going for the kimura, him kind of bailing out, jumping on his back, throwing on that rear-naked [choke]. Just kind of having all these sequences and flow in my game. It got me the finish.”
Following the conclusion of the main event, Oliveira said he actually suffered a broken arm in training and that affected his ability to prepare properly, which likely played a part in the massive weight cut he endured prior to Saturday night.
That may be true, but Bautista scoffed at Oliveira explaining away his loss, especially when he went through an injury of his own prior to one of the biggest wins of his career.
“That sucks,” Bautista said about Oliveira’s injury. “Leading into my Patchy [Mix] fight, I popped a rib … I still beat the shit out of him. I don’t care about your excuses. It’s part of the game.”
With the win, Bautista is back on track with a 9-1 record overall in his past 10 fights and he’s definitely looking up the rankings for his next fight.
Ideally, Bautista wants a rematch against Cory Sandhagen after he accepted a short-notice opportunity to face the one-time bantamweight title challenger in his octagon debut. Sandhagen finished with a first round submission in their initial encounter and now Bautista wants to run it back with more experience on his side this time.
“I think it goes completely different,” Bautista said about a rematch against Sandhagen. “I’ve had so much more experience. That was maybe 10, 12 fights ago, I’ve had a lot of experience in that time. He’s just kind of hanging out in that spot. He can’t break that championship spot.
“So I think it would make for a great fight and give me that opportunity to see where I can go.”
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