Rafa Garcia vs. Vinc Pichel
BETTING PREVIEW | SCOUTING REPORT | ODDS: Garcia (-485), Pichel (+370)

Round 1
Twelve years separate the next two competitors, with the younger man a heavy betting favorite. Garcia (16-4, 4-4 UFC) gets a huge pop from the crowd as the first Mexican-born athlete to hit the stage today, while the leisurely paced Pichel (14-4, 7-4 UFC) is showered in boos. The lightweights with a fairly similar amount of combat experience touch gloves before referee Raul Porrata. Pichel keeps his distance early, parrying any incoming fire and letting the energy in favor of Garcia wash over them both. Garcia breaks the silence with a huge overhand right and rips a left to the liver. Pichel responds with a left hook that makes the Mexican fighter back off for a moment, and Garcia measures him with a thudding right hand that makes Pichel have to blink it out repeatedly. Garcia crowds him with a pair of hooks, and he swats away a head kick. Garcia crashes through a low kick to hurl punches, and Pichel keeps a wide berth and stabs out a front kick. Garcia comes up short with haymakers, allowing the elder Pichel to potshot him from a safe distance. When Pichel kicks low, Garcia wings a right hand over the top. Pichel fires back with a vengeance, and Garcia shrugs it off and stays close in front of him but not too close. Garcia scores a single low kick and is jabbed back, and he raises his guard in the nick of time to block an overhand right. Garcia swings wide to the body, forcing Pichel to ricochet off the wall, and he hammers the front leg with a kick. Pichel loads up with a body kick, and Garcia smiles at him and continues to crowd him. Garcia pushes a front kick out of the way to crowd the older fighter, pressing him against the wall while stomping on his toes. Garcia lifts Pichel’s legs up and is about to deposit him to the ground, but Pichel regains his balance. Perhaps in a poor bit of decisionmaking, Pichel spins for a back elbow while tightly pressed to his foe, and this allows Garcia to hit a clean double on him. Garcia rides out the round on top.

Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round: 10-9 Garcia
Brian Knapp scores the round: 10-9 Garcia
Tyler Treese scores the round: 10-9 Garcia

Round 2
The athletes get right back down to business, trading leather early and often. Pichel sneaks in a right hand and slips to the side, and he dips to fire off an uppercut and jogs away to reset. Pichel’s stance switches and awkward movement prevents Garcia from blitzing him on the regular, and he keeps his head on a swivel to not get caught with anything flush. Garcia nevertheless walks him down and blasts him in the face with a crisp right hand, and then chains two more fists behind it. Pichel flashes out his jab, pop pop bang, to keep Garcia from going at him. Pichel pushes off while trying to push his foe’s arm out of the way, and his thumb slides deep into Garcia’s eye socket. Pichel immediately apologizes before Porrata gets between them, and he gives Garcia all the time he needs to recover. Garcia takes it, accepts Pichel’s fervent apology and gets back to walking the aging fighter down. Pichel uses his knee to frame off, and he strings a few punches together behind it. Pichel tosses up a head kick that is blocked in time, and he probes out a right hand before getting his head snapped back with a one-two. Pichel tries to jump his way forward, and he pushes off Garcia’s face and slams his shin on Garcia’s calf. Garcia grimaces and wraps Pichel up in hopes of taking him down. Pichel leans against the wall to keep himself upright, and he postures off and breaks free, where he puts punches and kicks together in rapid succession. Pichel fakes to the body to open up a head shot, and Garcia can only swing big right hands back at him. A few of those get through, and Pichel beans him with a counter overhand right to make him think twice about entering the pocket with his hands low. Pichel comes up swinging with a huge uppercut, and he hand-fights to parry most of the blows aimed at him. Pichel jabs to the head and body, and he splits the guard with a front kick, toes extended towards the target. Garcia lumbers forward swinging heavy leather, and Pichel skirts to the slide and flicks out a few low kicks to end the round.

Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round: 10-9 Pichel
Brian Knapp scores the round: 10-9 Pichel
Tyler Treese scores the round: 10-9 Pichel

Round 3
Pichel is fired up to start up the last round, and he channels that energy with frenetic punches and kicks that stop Garcia from getting through to him. Pichel strings a few punches together up top, and Garcia clutches his eye as if he was poked. Pichel claims it was a closed fist that did the damage, and he unloads with flying fists until Garcia steels himself and comes back out swinging. Pichel counters the flailing strikes, but he is taking shots to the body and taking heavy breaths. Garcia continues to put everything behind every one of his swings, while Pichel is more than content to jab and prod. When Garcia looks to charge, Pichel pushes him back with jabs and front kicks, but Garcia decides to pour it on and tags Pichel a few times. Pichel rebounds off the fencing and uses his push kick to redden up Garcia’s midsection. Pichel probers out with straight punches until getting tagged, and he starts swinging back with arc on his punches when not mixing in his front kick. Pichel further keeps things interesting by shooting for a takedown, and Garcia just stands before him and smiles at him. A Pichel front kick bumps the cup, and Garcia wants to keep going so it goes uncalled. Pichel loads up on body kicks and walks through three left hands, kicking Garcia constantly while keeping his distance. The leg kicks to the thigh and calf keep landing for “From Hell,” until Garcia is sick of taking them and just lifts Pichel up and deposits him down to the mat like a sack of potatoes. Pichel scoots his way towards the wall in hopes of walking up it, while Garcia tries to smother him and threaten with an arm-triangle choke. Pichel turns to his knees and stands, and Garcia slugs him in the face with numerous unanswered right hands. Pichel frees himself with seconds to go, and he lets Garcia have it with all his remaining energy. Punches, kicks and knees fly every which way until the final horn blares, signaling an end to what turned into an entertaining scrap.

Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round: 10-9 Garcia (29-28 Garcia)
Brian Knapp scores the round: 10-9 Garcia (29-28 Garcia)
Tyler Treese scores the round: 10-9 Garcia (29-28 Garcia)

The Official Result
Rafa Garcia def. Vinc Pichel via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

Jim Miller vs. Vinc Pichel

Round 1
Competing atop the preliminary card is the most active fighter in UFC history in Miller (32-14, 1 NC; 21-13, 1 NC UFC) against “From Hell” Pichel (12-2, 5-2 UFC) in the lightweight division. Pichel made his UFC debut in 2012 and this will be his eighth fight with the promotion, while Miller will have competed 23 times in that same span when the night ends. Referee Herb Dean will keep a watchful eye on this preliminary headliner, and there is a touch of gloves before these two get down to it. The two try to find their way in, and Pichel lands first with a left hand. Miller charges back at him and catches him with a left, and nearly clips him with a knee up the middle. Pichel fires back, and lands a body kick. Miller again races towards him with a string of punches, and he ends a combination with a hard leg kick. A sharp uppercut stings Pichel, and Miller tosses a low kick that grazes the cup and halts the action briefly. Miller takes a shot to the cup as well but he fights through it as they swing for the bleachers. Miller walks him down and clinches up, landing a knee to the torso before trying to trip Pichel’s legs out. Miller commits to a single but Pichel keeps them upright, so Miller drills him in the breadbasket with a knee. Miller hacks at him with elbows and pair of knees until Pichel breaks free. Miller flips up a head kick and Pichel blocks it without countering. Miller walks him down with another head kick and a low kick, and Pichel’s hands are by his waist possibly to stop a takedown. The hand position does not help him stuff the takedown that soon follows, and Miller instantly takes Pichel’s back to get his hooks in. “From Hell” tries with all his might to lean to the fence to try to stave off the submission, and he nearly spins out but almost falls into submission danger. Pichel turns about so Miller switches to a guillotine choke, which he uses to take top position as Pichel holds on tight. Miller rolls and traps the calf of his opponent for a calf slicer, but time expires before he can secure a tap.

Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round: 10-9 Miller
Brian Knapp scores the round: 10-9 Miller
Tristen Critchfield scores the round: 10-9 Miller

Round 2
They touch gloves at the start of the round, and Pichel rushes in with a head kick but Miller eats it like a sandwich and hits a takedown with relative ease. Miller works him from the top while Pichel scoots back to the fence, and Miller takes the moment to get to half guard and stand up to land some strikes. Pichel kicks off and just misses an upkick, and springs back up to mash Miller against the cage. Pichel changes levels to get Miller down, and his neck is quickly in danger for a guillotine choke. “From Hell” calmly pulls his neck free, and he keeps Miller pressed to the wall while Miller throws his legs up for some submission. Pichel wrests his arms free from what looks like a double armbar, and he steps over into half guard while Miller keeps attacking. Pichel steps over and Miller latches on to a heel hook, and Pichel turns out and nails Miller with a pair of heavy elbows to step into half guard again. Pichel sets up an arm-triangle choke and swipes at Miller’s forehead with a few elbows as he grinds him out. Pichel postures up and lands a punch, but Miller ties him up again. Pichel stays heavy and keeps Miller trapped on his back, landing sporadic punches and racking up control time. Pichel gets off a few more punches as the horn sounds to wrap up the second frame.

Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round: 10-9 Pichel
Brian Knapp scores the round: 10-9 Pichel
Tristen Critchfield scores the round: 10-9 Pichel

Round 3
The two lightweights greet with one final glove touch, and Pichel rings home a right hand and a body kick before setting up a takedown. Miller tries to defend against it, but he falls to his back as Pichel fishes for a kimura. Miller yanks his arm free, but in the process, Pichel advances to side control and drops down a few elbows as Miller attempts to roll for a leg lock. Pichel steps out of it and circles around to take Miller’s back, landing a few punches and securing his hooks. Miller twists and turns as Pichel hunts for a rear-naked choke, and “A-10” powers his way up and around to go after a guillotine choke while Pichel is on his knees. A wild scramble puts Pichel on his back as Miller starts to put a few punches together. Pichel walks up the cage wall to his knee, and Miller frees a trapped leg to take Pichel’s back and drags him down. Pichel rolls along with Miller in that instance to buck Miller off, and Pichel now has Miller’s back. The exciting grappling continues as they both keep scrambling and get back to their feet. Miller presses him to the fence as he looks for a single, allowing Pichel to knee him in the chin. Another knee from Pichel backs Miller out of the clinch, and Pichel walks forward to land some punches before changing levels for a single leg takedown. Miller stuffs it and gets kneed several times. When they separate, Pichel boots him in the head, and Miller shakes off the cobwebs, pulls guard and cinches up a guillotine choke. It is incredibly tight, and Pichel is in a bad way, but he grits it out and pulls his neck out of the rough position. Pichel lands a few hard shots on top to bloody up his opponent, and the final horn concludes this exciting lightweight scrap.

Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round: 10-9 Pichel (29-28 Pichel)
Brian Knapp scores the round: 10-9 Pichel (29-28 Pichel)
Tristen Critchfield scores the round: 10-9 Pichel (29-28 Pichel)

The Official Result
Vinc Pichel def. Jim Miller via Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-27)