It was not her best performance, but strawweight contender Maryna “The Iron Woman” Moroz earned her second straight victory tonight at UFC Fight Night 92: “Rodriguez vs Caceres” in Salt Lake City, Utah. Moroz narrowly outpointed “Dynamite” Danielle Taylor, who took the bout on short notice.

Moroz held a massive reach advantage over the much shorter Taylor, but struggled to land anything during the uneventful bout. Taylor connected with some hard right hands that rocked the Ukrainian at one point, but Moroz’s volume striking was enough to earn her a razor-thin decision victory.

Moroz (8-1-0) used jabs and one-twos to keep Taylor (7-2-0) at a distance in round one, but Taylor’s quick footwork allowed her to sidestep most of her opponent’s punches. Taylor found success with leg kicks as she darted in and out, but Moroz landed the most significant strike of the round when she blasted Taylor’s right eye with a straight right hand.

In round two, Taylor sought out a knockout blow, but she came up short with haymaker right hands. Moroz threw more jabs and one-twos, to varying degrees of success, until Taylor rocked her with an overhand right. Moroz recovered quickly and she remained aggressive with kicks and punches. Very few of her strikes landed and Taylor connected with right hands late in the round.

Moroz countered Taylor’s punches with a kick to the body in round three, which led to an exchange of jabs. Moroz avoided an uppercut and scored with a short right hook that halted Taylor’s momentum. However, Taylor landed a hard right hook late in the round that led to an exchange of punches, and she took Moroz down just before the end of the fight.

In spite of Taylor’s power punches in round two and strong finish to round three, only one judge scored the fight 29-28 in her favour. The remaining two had it 30-27 and 29-28, respectively, for Moroz, who takes another step up in the competitive women’s strawweight division. However, tonight’s performance was easily the most passive of Moroz’s career, and she will need a much stronger showing when she next competes inside the Octagon.

Winner: Maryna Moroz by Split Decision (30-27, 29-28, 28-29) after three rounds. She improves to 8-1-0.

(Photo Credit: UFC)