UFC Fight Night 218 video: Tatsuro Taira stays unbeaten with slick armbar finish

Japanese flyweight prospect Tatsuro Taira stayed undefeated with a slick submission at UFC Fight Night 218.

LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Tatsuro Taira[/autotag] gave [autotag]Jesus Aguilar[/autotag] a rude welcome to the octagon Saturday with a slick finish in the opening bout at UFC Fight Night 218.

Taira (13-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC), a highly touted flyweight prospect from Japan, kept his undefeated record intact with a triangle-armbar submission finish over Aguilar (8-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) at the 4:20 mark of Round 1 of the fight at the UFC Apex.

Aguilar attempted to submit Taira with a guillotine choke early on in the fight, but he managed to counter, get on top, move into mount, then flip into the triangle choke. He couldn’t get it, but then switched to the armbar to get it done.

Check out the replay of Taira’s finish below (via Twitter):

With the win, Taira has now stopped his opponent inside the distance in 10 of his 13 career triumphs. He told Michael Bisping in his post-fight interview that he intends to keep climbing the ladder until he becomes 125-pound champ.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 218.

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Photos: UFC Fight Night 218 weigh-ins and faceoffs

Check out these photos of the UFC Fight Night 218 official weigh-ins and faceoffs at UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

Check out these photos of the UFC Fight Night 218 official weigh-ins and faceoffs at UFC Apex in Las Vegas. (Photos by Ken Hathaway, MMA Junkie)

Matchup Roundup: New UFC and Bellator fights announced in the past week (Oct. 31-Nov. 6)

All the UFC and Bellator fight announcements that were first reported or confirmed by MMA Junkie in the past week.

MMA fight announcements are hard to follow. With so many outlets and channels available, it’s nearly impossible to organize.

But here at MMA Junkie, we’ve got your back.

Each week, we’ll compile all the newly surfaced fights in one spot. Every Monday, expect a feature listing everything you might have missed from the UFC or Bellator.

Here are the fight announcements that were broken or confirmed by MMA Junkie from Oct. 31-Nov. 6.

This mashup of ‘Running Up That Hill’ and Willlians Astudillo’s game-winning run is the best thing you’ll see today

Be running up that road. Be running up that hill. Be running up that building.

The Miami Marlins had an insane finish against the Washington Nationals, and their game went into extra innings.

Miami’s Willians Astudillo, also known as La Tortuga, was in scoring position on second base when Jesús Aguilar came up to bat. Aguilar was 0-for-3 before the crucial at-bat, and he was in the midst of a massive slump.

Aguilar, however, hit one up the middle that ricocheted off second base and bounced into the outfield. Astudillo, meanwhile, hustled his way around the bases and made his way in to try and score.

It was magical watching Astudillo hustle towards home, and it was even more beautiful watching the walk-off set to the tune of “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush.

You can thank Jeremy Taché, of Bally Sports Florida, for this brilliance:

“Running Up That Hill” was recently used in Netflix’s Stranger Things, and the cult classic has enjoyed a resurgence of late.

Even though she released the song in 1985, the track became No. 1 on iTunes and just made the Billboard Top 10 charts for the first time. The track is also trending on Tik Tok.

But it really came to life most when set to this awesome baseball highlight.

There is just so much to love about this video, including the reactions from La Tortuga’s Miami teammates or the way his hair is flowing in the wind due to his blazing speed on the base paths.

Astudillo showcased good fundamentals on his slide into the plate, too, and I just wish that there were more fans at the game in Miami to see this unfold at the game.

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The Marlins’ Jesus Aguilar gestured ‘thumbs down’ in a lively exchange with Francisco Lindor

Expect more of that, Mets.

It hasn’t been an easy few days for the New York Mets, and now, the opposing players are even getting in on the act.

The Mets caused somewhat of an uproar amongst their fanbase after Javy Baez, Francisco Lindor and Kevin Pillar were seen gesturing “thumbs down” in Sunday’s win against the Nationals. Baez said after the game that the gesture was a message to the fans who had booed the Mets throughout the August collapse.

The organization then spent the next two days playing damage control, which included pregame apologies from Baez and Lindor (Mets fans booed those apologies).

Well, it also didn’t take long to see the thumbs down make an appearance in Tuesday’s game.

During the second inning, the Marlins’ Jesus Aguilar retired Jonathan Villar on a groundout to first. Aguilar then turned to the Mets dugout and had some words — likely in a joking manner — with Lindor. At one point, Aguilar made a “thumbs down” gesture in the exchange with Lindor — an obvious reference to the controversy of the past few days.

It did appear that Aguilar was mostly messing with Lindor given the smile at the end of the video. But it’s pretty clear that the Mets are going to hear about the thumbs-down saga for some time from their opponents this season.

And you know what — there’s nothing wrong with that. Baseball needs more taunting.

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Jesús Aguilar hilariously got caught stealing signs against the Diamondbacks

Swiper no swiping.

Marlin’s first baseman Jesús Aguilar is really doing his best to become Major League Baseball’s master thief. And, honestly, it’s quite hilarious.

Last month he got caught on camera swiping a card of some sort from out of card out of Dom Smith’s back pocket. It was such an incredibly smooth move. He just slyly slid over and swiped it.

On Thursday, he got caught again. Not just by the camera this time, though.

He lifted up the armband of Diamondbacks catcher Carson Kelly while he was on base to get a quick look at some of their signals. It was absolutely comical.

Kelly was a bit annoyed but it’s Aguilar’s face after he’s caught that just drives home the laugh.

This is absolutely hilarious. It’s all in good fun, too. He’s not actually stealing signs — he’s just messing with Kelly.

This face, y’all.

Just classic. The internet remembered his swipe on Smith, too.

This is just incredible. What a run by Aguilar. Watch out, baseball. We’ve got a real master thief on our hands.

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Marlins’ Jesús Aguilar turns first base fumble into stellar bare-handed grab to end inning

Talk about quick reflexes from Jesús Aguilar here.

Jesús Aguilar and his cat-like reflexes on this play are likely a major reason why the Miami Marlins won their game on Saturday night against the San Francisco Giants. When a play was needed in a big-time spot, Aguilar delivered with one of the best individual efforts at first base of the season.

At the top of the 10th inning with Giants runners at second and third — and San Francisco ahead 6-5 — Mauricio Dubon hit a bouncing ball hard down the middle of the infield. At shortstop, Jazz Chisholm Jr. fielded the ball and threw to Aguilar, who missed the initial backhanded snag but on the rebound… caught the ball with his bare hand for the out!

As improbable as it sounds, Aguilar was able to recover from his fumble to make a spectacular play to save a run and end the inning.

And here’s the play in real time to showcase just how incredible the feat Aguilar managed to pull off was.

It’s clear on replay that Aguilar’s initial miss into his glove popped the ball up and slowed its rotation just enough for the first baseman to make a play on the ball with his hand. Talk about quick thinking!

Not only did Aguilar’s brilliant play save a run, it also gave the Marlins the opportunity to win the game in the bottom of the 10th, which they did in walk-off fashion by a score of 7-6 on a two-run double. All thanks to Aguilar and this stunning, athletic play at first base.

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Jesus Aguilar swiped a mysterious object out of Dom Smith’s back pocket at first base

Jesus Aguilar really pickpocketed Dom Smith.

Yes, you read that correctly. This is a thing that happened. No idea why it happened, but it definitely looks like it happened.

Marlins first baseman Jesus Aguilar looked like he slyly swiped something out of Dom Smith’s back pocket on Thursday when the Marlins were matched up with the Mets.

It looked like he took some sort of card from out of Smith’s back pocket. We have no idea what is on the card or what it’s even there for. All we know is that it appears that, uh, well, it’s Aguilar’s now.

This is absolutely hilarious. Look at how smoothly he comes by and pulls the card out.

Smith doesn’t even notice! Aguilar could be the next Bond or something with smooth moves like that.

People had so many jokes including puns about…getting caught stealing.

Hopefully, it’s not anything important like a scouting report or anything. Though, I’m very uncertain of why anyone would carry a scouting report around on the field, anyway.

Hopefully, someone asks Aguilar about the incident and we get some sort of clarity.

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