“The Celtic Kid” Jake Matthews, 28, of Epping, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia is one of the winners at “UFC 291” at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States on July 29, 2023. It is the Australian mixed martial artist’s 12th victory in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
“UFC 291” featured 11 bouts. In the third bout of the evening, Matthews fought “Beast Mode” Darrius Flowers, 28, of Mason, Iowa, USA in the welterweight division.
Matthews is 5’11” tall. Flowers stands 5’9″.
Tyler Tomlinson served as the referee of the welterweight contest. He stopped it after 2 minutes and 37 seconds in the second round.
Tomlinson raised the hand of Matthews, who submitted Flowers via rear-naked choke. It improved the Epping resident’s professional MMA record to 19 wins and 6 losses.
Six countries were represented at “UFC 291”, which are Australia, Brazil, Poland, Russia, Serbia and the U.S. It marked Flowers’ UFC debut and downgraded his professional MMA record to 12 wins, 6 losses and 1 draw.
Born and raised in Melbourne, Matthews trains at his own gym XLR8 Training Centre in Epping. In 2012, he graduated from Mill Park Secondary College in Mill Park, Victoria and made his professional MMA debut.
In 2014, Matthews made his UFC debut. The first 11 opponents he defeated in the promotion are Dashon Johnson, Vagner Rocha, Akbarh Arreola, Johnny Case, Bojan Veličković, Li Jingliang, Shinsho Anzai, Rostem Akman, Emil Weber Meek, Diego Sanchez and André Fialho.
After “UFC 291”, Matthews is interested in fighting “Trailblazer” Kevin Holland, 30, of Fort Worth, Texas, USA in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The Australian MMA fighter said, “I got my eyes on Abu Dhabi.”
Holland submitted Michael Chiesa, 35, of Spokane Valley, Washington, USA via brabo choke in the welterweight division at “UFC 291”. It was Holland’s 12th UFC win.
“If he wants to get over to Abu Dhabi in the Middle East, we can do that,” Matthews said of Holland. “But, you know, we’ll take a week. We’ll sit down. We’ll talk to Sean Shelby and we’ll see what the best plan is. If it’s Sydney, well’ take Sydney. If you wanna push for something else, we’ll push for something else.”
CONAN Daily 