‘Cyborg’ Justino takes care of business in her first UFC main event

There was never any mystery in the main event of UFC FIght Night 95 in Brasilia, Brazil, on Saturday night.

That didn’t make the performance of Cris “Cyborg” Justino any less impressive.

Justino, the Invicta and former Strikeforce featherweight champion, stopped Lina Lansberg midway through the second round of the 140-pound catchweight main event.

“I’m happy to have put on a good performance and that’s it,” Justino said after landing 121 significant strikes to just five for Lansberg.

Justino has long been considered the most feared female striker in mixed martial arts, but insists she can’t make it down to compete in the biggest UFC weight class for women at 135 pounds.

She finally came to terms with the UFC to compete in a catchweight bout in May, when she made quick work of Leslie Smith.

That set her up for Saturday’s bout against Lansberg, who was making her UFC debut.

Justino landed big shots in the first round, but Lansberg endured the onslaught. The rest between rounds provided only a brief respite as Justino continued the attack once the bell rang again.

After she put Lansberg on her back again, Justino landed a series of punches and elbows to cut Lansberg and the fight was finally stopped at 2:29.

“I thought I would do a little bit better, but she’s amazing,” Lansberg said. “I’ve been following her for years. Thank you so much Cris. I did enjoy it. It was fun.”

The win marked the 17th straight for Justino since losing her professional debut in 2005. The only blemish since then was a win that was vacated due to a positive steroid test in 2011.

Yet Justino is left without a title to pursue in the UFC as her weight cut was once again brutal and she continues to believe competing in the bantamweight division would be an impossibility.

That’s just fine with her for now.

“I already have two belts at home,” she said. “I just want to put on superfights for my fans and make them happy.”

Former UFC bantamweight champion Renan Barao earned his first win as a featherweight with a unanimous decision over Phillipe Nover.

Barao moved up to 145 pounds before his last fight only to lose a unanimous decision to Jeremy Stephens in May. The move was triggered by a pair of losses to T.J. Dillashaw in 135-pound title fights.

The Brazilian, who once won 32-straight fights, looked better than in any of his previous four bouts against Nover, who represented a step down in competition.

Still, Barao was pleased with the win.

““It was a tough fight, and I needed all three rounds to get the win,” Barao said. “I am getting more confident each time in this division.“

Las Vegan Roy Nelson won for the second time in his last three fights with a second-round knockout of Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva.

Nelson kept trying to find the range with his overhand right before eventually connecting square with a right uppercut to drop Silva in the final minute of the second round.

“It puts me right back near the top, like one fight away (from contention),” said Nelson, who believes he should be on a three-fight winning streak after a controversial split-decision loss to Derrick Lewis in July. “I’m here to just fight and put on a show for the fans.”

It wasn’t all smiles for the 40-year-old Cimarron-Memorial graduate.

He wasn’t happy he had to land several uncontested shots on his friend Silva before referee John McCarthy finally stopped the fight. Nelson even appeared to try to kick McCarthy at one point as he was attending to Silva.

“As soon as I knew I hit ‘Bigfoot,’ he was already out,” said Nelson, who appeared to gesture at McCarthy with his middle finger in the cage. “I got to punch him six more times, and I don´t think he needed this.”

It was the fifth loss in the last six fights for Silva, all by knockout.

Francisco Trinaldo earned a victory over Paul Felder when the ringside doctor ruled Felder couldn’t continue midway through the third round because of a nasty gash over his eye.

Trinaldo had opened the cut over Felder’s right eye midway through the second and it got progressively worse until the fight was finally stopped.

Middleweight Eric Spicely pulled sprung a major upset with a first-round submission of Thiago Santos.

Spicely, more than a 5-to-1 underdog, got an early takedown and relentlessly pursued a submission until he finally locked in a rear-naked choke at the 2:58 mark.

The win helped erase the memory of losing for the first time in his professional career in his UFC debut in July.

“It means the world to me to come in here as a huge underdog against the No. 15-ranked guy in the world, a terrifying striker, and beat him like that,” Spicely said There’s no better feeling in the world.”

Brazilian featherweight Godofredo Pepey also ended his fight with an early rear-naked choke.

Pepey needed just 3:03 to submit Mike de la Torre with the maneuver in the first fight of the main card.

Welterweight veteran Erick Silva highlighted the preliminary card with a rear-naked choke finish of Luan Chagas late in the third round of their bout.

The submission was set up in bizarre fashion as Chagas was on all fours behind Silva after a wild scramble and Silva took his back by leapfrogging backward and locking in the choke.

Jussier Formiga, Rani Yahya and Michel Prazeres all won unanimous decisions on the televised portion of the preliminary card.

Formiga, a top contender at flyweight, controlled Dustin Ortiz on the mat in a battle of outstanding grapplers.

Yahya edged Michinori Tanaka in a bantamweight bout and Prazeres took all three rounds over Gilbert Burns in what was contested at a catchweight bout after Prazeres missed the lightweight limit by two pounds.

Alan Patrick, Vicente Luque and Gregor Gillespie all earned wins in untelevised bouts.

Luque needed just 1:00 to knock out Hector Urbina in a welterweight bout, while Gillespie and Patrick took unanimous decisions over lightweights Stevie Ray and Glaico Franca, respectively.

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow @adamhilllvrj on Twitter.