Kenney suffers third split-decision defeat

HOUSTON — Casey Kenney has been here before.

At the end of his fight Saturday night, he threw his hands in the air in victory.

But so did Song Yadong.

When the judges’ scorecards were read, it was Yadong whose hand was raised by the referee.

Kenney, a 2009 Jay County High School graduate, suffered the third split-decision loss of his career Saturday, falling 30-27, 29-28, 28-29 to Yadong in the opening bout of the main card of UFC 265 at Toyota Center.

“I thought we got enough to get it done,” said Kenney. “But we didn’t. We didn’t. That’s just part of the game in a close fight like that.

“Props to Song. He threw down. Nothing away from him.

“It was a heck of a fight to open up the pay-per-view, that’s for sure.”

It was the second consecutive loss for Kenney, who also fell by split decision March 6 to former two-time UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz. (Cruz, now the 10th-ranked bantamweight in UFC, was part of the announcing team for Saturday night’s card.)

Yadong and Kenney kept up a quick pace throughout the fight, with the former opening the action with a body kick eight seconds into the fight and the latter countering with a right hand. Much of the first round followed that pattern, with the fighters trading flurries of punches over and over. The official statistics gave Yadong a 31-19 advantage on significant strikes. 

The second and third rounds were more of the same, with neither fighter gaining a clear upper hand. Statistics from UFC gave Yadong advantages of 34-28 in the second round and 51-31 in the third round on significant strikes, though Kenney recorded a takedown in the final 10 seconds of the fight.

Two of the three judges gave the opening round to Kenney. But all three gave the second to Yadong, and judges Chris Lee and Sal D’Amato awarded the third round and the win to Yadong.

The victory was a bounce back for Yadong, who was coming off a loss to Kyler Phillips at the same March 6 card during which Kenney fought Cruz. He is now 6-1-1 in the UFC with two wins by knockout and one by submission, and 17-5-1 overall as a professional with one no-contest.

The 23-year-old from Tianjin, China, had said in pre-fight comments that he planned to grapple with Kenney, but he ended up doing the bulk of his fighting from his feet.

“I feel like I have the advantage standing up,” Yadong said through a translator in his post-fight interview. “The original plan was to take him down, but I just feel like I can take care of things standing up.”

Kenney (16-4-1) said he felt he had been the aggressor throughout the fight. He also noted a first-period punch that caught Yadong in mid-kick and sent him to the mat in addition to the takedown just before time expired.

“I thought that was a wise decision to get a late takedown in the third,” said Kenney. “I knew that was a close round. I thought he slowed down after the first round. …

“He was harder to take down that I was expecting. I knew he was going to be strong and explosive … but I thought I was going to be able to take him down more.”

Three of Kenney’s four professional losses have come by split decision, as he fell to Adam Antolin by that method in 2017 as part of Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series in addition to the fights against Cruz and Yadong. His other loss was by unanimous decision to Merab Dvalishvili — he is now ranked 11th in the bantamweight division — in February 2020.

Kenney said he hopes to get one more fight in before the end of 2021, adding that he’ll take a few weeks to get some minor injuries checked out and then see what UFC might have in store for him next.