UFC Vegas 74 took place on June 3rd, 2023 and one women’s MMA fight on the main card fight ended with a brutal leglock causing a clear injury to one of the fighters. Ketlen Souza was scheduled to make her promotional debut at the event, and she was taking on a fellow experienced Brazilian fighter in Karine Silva. Souza put together an 11-3 professional MMA record on the regional MMA circuit in Brazil before making the trip to USA in order to compete for Invicta FC. After winning a pair of fights and the flyweight title there she was given the opportunity to make her UFC debut, and was matched well against a fighter who was also relatively new to the biggest stage.
Silva had a little bit more experience in the cage than her opponent, as she had put together 13-4 professional record before being called up to compete on Dana White’s Contender Series back in 2021. She won that fight by submission and won a UFC contract, making her promotional debut in 2022 and winning that by submission as well. In a rare achievement for women’s MMA, Silva had actually finished every single one of the opponents she faced in her career and was coming into UFC Vegas 74 riding a six fight winning streak.
It was early in the first round when the action hit the mat and Silva started to get to work on attacking a straight ankle-lock. She had a good bite on the ankle and started to apply pressure before throwing her outside leg over the top of Souza’s trapped leg. This reaping motion caused all of the pressure that Silva was applying in the leglock to transfer from her opponent’s ankle to her knee and this instantly caused a clear injury, putting an immediate end to the fight at UFC Vegas 74. Silva was declared the winner and will likely earn herself a huge step up in competition after such an impressive grappling display.
The footage of Karine Silva causing a brutal injury to Ketlen Souza with a leglock at UFC Vegas 74 can be found below:
That was rough pic.twitter.com/KD3uAQAzsM
— calfkicker (@calfkickercom) June 4, 2023
