Ken Stone and Dustin Pague were set to square off in the octagon in the opening fight of the UFC on FX 4 fight card in Atlantic City, NJ on Friday night. Both fighters entered the octagon with 1-1 records in their short time fighting in the UFC thus far.
The first round of the bout began with both fighters touching gloves and sizing each other up. Southpaw Ken Stone opened up the fight with a nice combination catching Pague cleanly and backin him up a little bit. The fighters exchanged leg kicks and continued to stalk around the ring. Pague caught Stone with a stiff jab when Stone attempted a spinning back fist that Pague ducked under.
Pague hit Stone with a big right hand that backed him up off the cage, but Stone recovered and came forward to land a big punch of his own. A few seconds later the bout was paused as Pague accidentally caught Stone in the groin area with an inside leg kick. Stone took a minute or so to recover and the fight continued.
With about 20 seconds left in the round, Pague tagged Stone again with another nice punch that sent him backwards, but stone quickly recovered as the two exchanged a few punches in the closing seconds of Round 1.
I have Pague winning Round 1 10-9 on my scorecard.
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