[Music] UFC featherweight Gabriel Santos looked to avoid the dreaded three-fight losing streak against road to UFC winner yeaw at UFC Vegas 97 on Saturday night Santos 10 to2 has had a rough start to his UFC career going 0-2 in his first two setbacks against Lon Murphy and David onama set him up for a must-win fight again yija yza 25 to4 gets his first official UFC bout at UFC Vegas 97 against Santos the road to UFC featherweight winner has a considerable experience advantage over Santos and fought to take advantage of that in the fight a trade of outside leg kick and a bit of fisticuffs set the tone early in Gabriel Santos versus yiza Santos dropped down looking to land a sweeping kick moments later a combination from the Brazilian would see a right hand connect then another nasty outside leg kick zah landed a right but Santos again replied with a combo a kick briefly sat zah down he'd come on strong late in the round until a front kick dropped Z against the fence somehow zah survived the insuring storm and got back to his feet though he was almost certainly worse for the wear in the final 30 seconds Santos fired a knee to the body then fell short on a jump knee the teps push kicks and occasional high kicks of Santos continued to land for him early in round two zah despite coming under Fire early waved his opponent on in a change of pace Santos drove into a takedown putting ye Z on his back Santos wound up stepping back and stacking Z up before re-engaging he settled into half guard but Z would make it out the ref briefly halted the action with the doctor checking a cut on Z that had been opened up due to an elbow the action was allowed to continue with the pair fired up throwing spinning elbows and jawing after the horn Santos came guns blazing to start round three Z fired a front kick and later changed levels for a takedown attempt that was easily stuffed Santos landed one of his own moments later however zah had his guard closed and would later try to scramble out but the end result was Santos taking the back he got a body triangle in place with half a round remaining to yea's credit he would survive to the final horn but was bloodied and thoroughly beaten in a fun heated contest