Decisive debut

PHILADELPHIA — When ring announcer Bruce Buffer revealed that one of the judges had scored the fight 30-27, Casey Kenney lifted his left arm in the air.

It was the moment he knew he had won his UFC debut.

Kenney, who stepped in to the fight on five day’s notice, knocked off Ultimate Fighting Championship’s third-ranked flyweight Ray Borg by unanimous decision in a catchweight bout Saturday during UFC at Wells Fargo Center.

Even more than 24 hours after the victory, it still seemed like a dream.

“I’m just waiting to wake up, I guess,” said Kenney, who entered the fight 15th in UFC’s flyweight rankings despite having never fought in the promotion. “It feels great. It’s everything I’ve asked for.”

The 2009 Jay County High School graduate has been clamoring for a spot in the UFC ever since turning pro in late 2014. He finally got the call a week ago after Kyler Phillips dropped out of his scheduled fight against Borg.

Despite coming off a first-round knockout victory just three days earlier in Legacy Fighting Alliance, Kenney jumped at the opportunity.

Kenney came out firing early against Borg, connecting with his first jab about 15 seconds into the fight. He scored a takedown at the 3:32 mark, landed some fists on the mat and tried for a rear naked choke before Borg was able to escape. Borg scored a takedown of his own and landed a shot to the mid-section at the 1:33 mark.

The bulk of the final two rounds were fought on the mat, with Kenney the victim of several takedowns but also again working for another rear naked choke starting at the two-minute mark of the final period. The fight finished in a flurry, with Kenney and Borg trading a series of punches over the final 15 seconds.

Kenney said he raised his arm after the 30-27 call by Buffer because he was confident he had won the opening round. Therefore, if anyone had won all three rounds, he felt it was him. (The other two judges scored the fight 29-28 in Kenney’s favor.)

“I thought I won the fight,” said Kenney. “He got a few takedowns, but he didn’t do anything besides try to hold my legs. Even when he did take me down, I either reversed it or got right back up.

“Any time we had a quick little striking exchange, I felt like I started to land some shots. He didn’t feel comfortable there at all.”

While fans at Wells Fargo Center expressed some disapproval at the decision, Kenney’s analysis was borne out by the official fight statistics.

Borg had the clear advantage in takedowns, 14-4. But in terms of total strikes and “significant” strikes, it was all Kenney.

He had more total strikes than Borg by a 92-44 margin while landing on 68 percent of his attempts. In terms of significant strikes, it was 64-34 in Kenney’s favor. He also recorded more reversals (6-2) and passes (10-6).

“For me, it’s not a wrestling match about how many takedowns you can get. It’s about the damage control,” said Kenney. “Obviously takedowns score some points, but I felt I won the overall fight.”

The victory was the fifth in a row for Kenney (12-1-1), who was coming off of a first-round knockout of Vince Cachero just eight days earlier in a bout for the Legacy Fighting Alliance interim bantamweight title. He also holds both the LFA interim flyweight (125) championship and the Tachi Palace Fights flyweight belt.

The loss was the second in a row for Borg (11-4), though they were separated by nearly 17 months. His October 2017 defeat came by a fifth-round submission in a UFC flyweight title bout against Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, who held the title for nearly six years.

After fighting twice in nine days, Kenney said he’s ready for a little time off. But not too much.

Kenney said he’d like to be back in the octagon this summer, specifically noting UFC’s International Fight Week July 3 through 7 in Las Vegas.

As for Saturday’s step up to the top level of mixed martial arts, it was a long-time coming for the 28-year-old who was a two-time wrestling state medalist at JCHS. But it did not disappoint.

“It was everything, from the UFC experience, behind the scenes, with all the photos and videos and stuff like that. The interviews and everything,” said Kenney. “Just being a part of the UFC, fighting where the ’6ers play in a huge arena. It was everything I thought it was going to be.”