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Theodorou takes ugly 3-round battle with Kelly on points

Mark Kolbe / Getty Images Sport / Getty

Elias Theodorou's striking remains downright atrocious, but it works.

The 29-year-old rode a high-volume attack and survived a late submission scare to take a unanimous decision over Melbourne's Dan Kelly in their middleweight tilt at UFC Fight Night 121 in Sydney on Saturday.

Theodorou rebounded from a July loss on points to Brad Tavares and improved his UFC record to 6-2 with the victory over his fellow "TUF Nations" alum.

Through the first two rounds, Theodorou remained fleet of foot and scored points with a steady stream of high and low kicks, while Kelly gave chase and hit pay dirt with dirty boxing in spurts. Knowing his foe's high output, however awkward, had put him ahead on the scorecards heading into the third, Kelly brought the fight to the mat and trapped Theodorou in a rear-naked choke, only for Theodorou to work his way out of the submission and resume his kick-heavy attack to secure the nod by tallies of 30-28, 30-27, and 30-26.

The 40-year-old Kelly's promotional record fell to 6-3 with his second consecutive defeat.

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