Rodolfo Vieira is back in the win column after a great display of his elite Jiu-Jitsu skills against Cody Brundage at UFC Vegas 72 on April 29th, 2023. The pair were supposed to meet quite a while ago originally before Vieira was injured, and were then rebooked for this event. Vieira was 1-2 in his last 3 fights coming into this so he needed a win in order to keep himself relevant in the middleweight division, and he seemed aware of that himself. During the build-up to the fight, he hired a BJJ coach for the very first time in his MMA career in order to help him bring his existing grappling skills to his new career.
Brundage came out swinging right from the start of the first round and he was clearly trying to finish Vieira early, but Vieira managed to put his opponent’s back against the fence to prevent that. Vieira was using the bodylock well and was working for the takedown when he landed an accidental knee to Brundage’s groin and the fight was stopped for a moment. When they were reset in the centre, Brundage used his striking to great effect and dropped Vieira. He followed his opponent down to the ground and was trying to find the finish, although Vieira was working to deep half-guard to mitigate the offense.
Vieira worked his way back to his feet and hit a lovely inside trip to take Brundage down, quickly transitioning to his back too. He landed a lot of shots in the position but it wasn’t enough for him to win the first round. Vieira came out for the second round and used a 1-2 to set up a takedown immediately. Brundage tried to work for a guillotine but Vieira escaped and started setting up an arm-triangle choke from half-guard. Brundage tried to defend valiantly but it was too far gone and he had to tap.
The footage of Rodolfo Vieira defeating Cody Brundage by submission at UFC Vegas 72 was uploaded to the official Twitter account of the UFC:
He turns the tables in R2 to end it!!!!
Rodolfo Vieira coming with a point to prove tonight 👏 #UFCVegas72 pic.twitter.com/5pcwnzxbFF
— UFC (@ufc) April 30, 2023