Dave Galera loses decision to Royston Wee in UFC debut

SINGAPORE – Dave “The Scarecrow” Galera came into his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) debut against Royston Wee Saturday night at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Singapore with an undefeated recorded that included 3 wins by submission and 2 by knockout. The long-limbed, American born Filipino bantamweight was seen as a highly-regarded prospect who was adept at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and possessed a solid stand-up game.

Too bad he didn’t work on his wrestling.

The Singaporean Wee took Galera of Team Lakay down to the ground seemingly at will, landed shot after shot and even managed to figure in two highlight-reel slams to his credit. In the end, Wee won a unanimous decision with scores of 30-26 on all three judges’ cards, improving to 3-0 while Galera drops to 5-1.

Although Galera fought well from inside his guard, working on a Kimura Arm Lock and various other submissions all night, he spent nearly the entire fight on his back, with Wee in dominant position.

On the ground, Wee didn’t do much apart from keeping Galera contained on the mat. It was an extremely dragging fight that didn’t see a whole lot of action, with the first two rounds a near identical.

In the third round, Galera tried to stand up with Wee and had success. Once again however, he failed to stuff Wee’s takedown and found himself quickly on his back once more. An illegal up-kick delivered by Galera, possibly out of frustration, caused a halt to the action allowing Wee to recover. Galera was deducted a point by referee John Sharp.

Towards the end of the round, Galera got close to locking in the Kimura he’d been working on the entire fight, but it slipped out and so did his chance at stealing the victory.

Jon “The Heat” Delos Reyes taps out to an armbar

Earlier in the evening, another Filipino-American, Jon “The Heat” Delos Reyes, a 26-year-old fighting out of Guam, came storming out the gates with intense fury as he brought the fight right to his opponent Dustin Kimura in their bantamweight clash.

Kimura was battered and bruised early on but kept his composure. The fight was over quick when Delos Reyes found himself in an unfavorable position, losing one of his limbs to Kimura’s BJJ. Delos Reyes’ arm got caught in a Kimura armbar, forcing him to tap out at 2:13 of the first round.

Kimura improves to 11-1 while Delos Reyes drops to 7-3. – Rappler.com