Justin Jaynes explains why he shot for late takedown against Charles Rosa at UFC Vegas 30

UFC featherweight fighter Justin Jaynes explained why he shot for a late takedown in his recent fight against Charles Rosa at UFC Vegas 30.

Jaynes lost a split decision to Rosa at this past weekend’s UFC Vegas 30 card. While a preliminary card featherweight bout typically wouldn’t be getting so much attention, this particular fight did because Jaynes revealed that he bet $25,000 on himself to win the fight. Unfortunately for Jaynes, he came up just short on the judges’ scorecards.

While the fight ended up going to the cards, there was a chance in the third round for Jaynes to finish Rosa. “The Guitar Hero” had Rosa rocked with punches, but instead of swarming him with strikes and trying to get the finish on the feet, Jaynes shot for a takedown. He tried going for an arm-triangle choke but failed and ended up losing.

Speaking to MMAFighting.com, Jaynes explained why he shot for a late takedown and justified why he thought he had a chance to win the fight on the judges’ scorecards.

“It’s just a slippery slope, especially scoring for MMA, because I do feel Charles had more volume but he wasn’t landing any shots. I’m not bruised up, I wasn’t—It’s frustrating, because when I landed my shots, I was cracking. When he was landing his shots, they were like mosquito bites. So I thought I won the first round, he took me down with, like, 40 seconds in the first round. I reversed out of it relatively quick, it kind of negates the takedown I feel. And again, landing the stronger strikes, I thought I won the first round. Going into the second, we ended up in kind of this awkward position where he was hammerfisting me but, again, not damaging shots. I lost the second round for sure just because of that awkward position we were getting in,” Jaynes said.

“I come out slugging in the third. I knew he was hurt and I’m getting a lot of criticism for, ‘Oh, why did you take him down?’ After I’m finishing with that flurry, although I am cracking, my punches are slowing down, we’ve been fighting for 15 minutes, the lactic acid is filling up in my arms, I can feel my punches slowing down. I start hitting him in the forearms and then we were just so close, so I took him down knowing that or assuming after watching Bryce Mitchell that he’d give me a side choke.”

What do you think is next for Justin Jaynes after losing to Charles Rosa at UFC Vegas 30?