Hawaiian Kailin Curran scored a second-round submission victory over Bangor native Emily Kagan in their UFC women’s strawweight mixed martial arts bout Thursday night at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Nevada.
The contest opened the undercard of UFC Fight Night 80, which was headlined by another women’s strawweight (115-pound) contest between third-ranked Rose Namajunas and No. 7 Paige VanZant.
The win ended a two-fight losing streak and was the first by stoppage for the 24-year-old Curran, now 4-2 overall and 1-2 in UFC bouts.
Kagan, making her first appearance in the octagon in nearly a year, fell to 3-3 overall, 0-2 in official UFC bouts.
The loss was the third straight for Kagan since she was among 11 fighters signed from the Invicta FC promotion by the UFC in order for the organization to develop a women’s strawweight division that was the subject of season 20 of “The Ultimate Fighter” television series that aired in 2014.
Kagan was accompanied to the octagon by newly crowned UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm, her teammate at Jackson-Wink MMA Academy in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Holm won the title with a second-round knockout of former champion Ronda Rousey in Melbourne, Australia, last month.
Kagan started aggressively against Curran and seemingly won the first round despite nearly being submitted by a triangle choke after scoring her lone takedown of the period.
But the 34-year-old graduate of Deering High School in Portland could not maintain her early pace.
Curran ultimately capitalized by successfully countering a Kagan takedown to gain top position before forcing the submission by locking in a rear-naked choke hold 4:13 into the second of the three scheduled five-minute rounds.
Kagan had lost to Joanne Calderwood in the first round of the TUF 20 tournament and then lost by unanimous decision to Angela Hill on the TUF 20 Finale card on Dec. 12, 2014, in her most recent fights preceding the clash with Curran.
