Ryan Hall Defends Third-Round Antics against Darren Elkins at UFC Sacramento

Ryan Hall continued his perfect run inside the UFC with a one-sided unanimous decision victory over the veteran Darren Elkins at UFC Fight Night 155 on Saturday, though his antics in the third round drew ire from the Sacramento crowd.

Hall is known as a world-class grappler who uses techniques that are rare in MMA, such as the Imanari roll, to catch his opponents. However, Hall surprised everyone over the weekend by putting on a striking clinic against Elkins, knocking him down on a number of occasions throughout the fight. Heading into the third and final round, Hall appeared to decide to play it safe, declining to engage with his opponent, which was met with deafening boos.

Speaking to MMA Junkie, the 34-year-old defended his style of fighting, stating that the criticism is confusing to him considering he’s out-landed his opponents inside the Octagon.

“You try to be as tricky as possible to deal with,” Hall said. “My striking has really come along. I’ve cleanly out-struck every opponent I’ve fought. I don’t know why the narrative is different. Nobody wants to grapple with me, but we’ll see what happens when that changes.”

Hall’s claim he did out-strike his opponent proved correct, with 40 strikes landed compared to Elkins’ 31, but he stated that his veteran opponent’s toughness made his job harder:

“Darren’s super tough,” Hall said. “When I dropped him in the first, I was going to use the guillotine to get to something else. It had a bit more bite than I thought, so I stuck with it. I think with about 10 more seconds in the round, it would have been game over. Darren’s just tough as nails. Getting him out of there is not easy.”

Hall said he’s now targeting a Top-10 opponent next as he looks to make a run at the title, and the native of D.C. suburb Falls Church, Virginia, would love to be the home fighter for once.

“Darren’s been in the Top 10 or 15 for some time. He’s an unbelievably tough fighter,” Hall said. “There’s a card in [Washington] D.C. at the end of the year that’s about five minutes away from my house. I’d be excited to be on that and I’d love to fight someone in the Top 10.”