Fairfax, Va. -- Evan Dunham gave the judges a break.
Dunham's spectacular arm bar submission of Efrain Escudero at 1:59 of the third round highlighted a night filled with decisions at UFC Fight Night 20 at the Patriot Center.
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Dunham (10-0) and Escudero were even through the first two rounds, but the Oregonian did not leave anything to chance. He got Escudero (12-1) down with a powerful spinning takedown off the fence, worked him into a triangle with his legs and pulled the right arm.
Escudero appeared to start tapping out twice as Dunham extended his body like a vice. Finally Escudero tapped and Dunham got up and did a flip in the Octagon. Escudero walked out holding the right arm, which appeared to be injured.
"When I was cranking his arm, it went pop, pop, pop," said Dunham, who earned $30,000 for submission of the night.
Escudero used strikes to get Dunham against the fence 40 seconds into the fight. Dunham, one of the many southpaws on the card, stoned him and got it back to the middle. Escudero used his jab to set up uppercuts that missed until 2:33 was left, when one got through. About 10 seconds later, Escudero opened up a flurry of punches that hurt Dunham, who backed away, got it to the ground and survived. Dunham even landed a punch that got down Escudero in the final moments.
Dunham did better in the second-round standup than the first as a boxing match ensued through 90 seconds. The fighters were engaged until Dunham scored a solid takedown into half guard with 2:04 left. Dunham was able to land some ground strikes before standing up.
Then he went back down and got Escudero into a body triangle from behind. Escudero protected against the rear naked choke and instead took a pounding to the head for the final 20 seconds.
The fight was up for grabs heading into the third round, but Dunham did not leave it to the judges. He gave them a break.
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