LAS VEGAS – Lucas Rocha had to battle some early adversity before finishing Davi Bittencourt at Dana White’s Contender Series 66.
Rocha (17-1) came from behind to score a highlight reel knockout of Bittencourt (14-4) in their bantamweight bout Tuesday to earn a UFC contract. Before landing the brutal knee knockout, Rocha had his back taken in Round 1 and was battling to fend off Bittencourt’s rear-naked choke attempts.
But Rocha remained calm.
“I trained this over and over, same scenario with my coaches … so I wasn’t really surprised,” Rocha told MMA Junkie and other reporters through an interpreter during the DWCS 66 post-fight news conference. “I just had to weather the storm, and I knew my time would come.”
There was some heat between Rocha and Bittencourt heading into the fight due to Rocha missing weight in their first scheduled bout last week, which was scrapped. Rocha explained what went wrong.
“The week I didn’t make the weight was the worst travel week I’ve had,” Rocha said. “We had 18 hours, then we got stuck in the plane, there was a storm, I couldn’t eat what I needed to eat, I couldn’t drink water, I couldn’t rest. It was literally a nightmare. I just had to make adjustments to actually be able to fight this week
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for DWCS 66.
