UFC fighter Jamey-Lyn Horth Wessels narrowly lost her fight to Veronica Hardy on Saturday, Dec. 2.
The two fighters opened the night’s worth of fights at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas. After going all three rounds, Hardy won the bout by split decision over Horth Wessels after the two fighters traded blows for much of the match.
“Man, she is so tough,” Hardy said of Horth Wessels in her post-victory interview inside the octagon. “She has her whole team at Squamish, and I’m sure everybody just stopped everything they were doing just to watch her. I wish we all had support like that … it just makes you fight harder.”
Sure enough, there was a packed house of adoring fans at the Cleveland Tavern in Squamish to cheer on Horth Wessels, as about 50 people were in attendance to watch the fight. When Horth Wessels was introduced cheers could be heard outside of the pub.
Round 1 consisted largely of both fighters feeling each other out. Hardy, who is several inches shorter than Horth Wessels, attacked by trying to use her speed to her advantage. At one point during Round 1, a timeout was called after Horth Wessels was poked in the eye and Hardy was told to watch her fingers by the referee.
The slow-motion review of the eye poke drew lots of boos from the antsy local crowd.
In Round 2, Hardy came out quickly again, using her speed in an attempt to attack. About mid-way through the round, the two wrapped up and went to the ground, then against the fence, where they both traded strikes.
In the final round, Horth Wessels was clearly on the attack as she wrapped up Hardy several times and landed significant blows against Hardy. However, it didn’t prove to be quite enough as two judges favoured Hardy over one judge in favour of Horth Wessels.
Horth Wessels stood tall at the end of Round 3 though, raising her fists when the final bell sounded.
With the loss, Horth Wessels draws an even 1-1 in her UFC fighting career and 6-1-0 in her professional career. Hardy improves to 8-4-1 in her overall career.
