Everything was going perfect in the locker room. We were ready, we did everything we had to do, my mind, everything was set but I don’t know. When we stepped into the octagon I didn’t throw. I could see some opportunities to unload but my body just didn’t want to throw.

In the second and third rounds of the fight Escudero seemed to be thrown off by the frantic movements and rapid fire striking displayed by Oliveira. When asked if Oliveira’s amount of activity on his feet surprised him he replied…

I haven’t watched the tape yet, I haven’t seen the fight but no, he didn’t really surprise me. I knew he was going to come out swinging and that’s exactly what he did. He didn’t surprise me. He stood in there and I knew when I threw he was going to block up high and my game plan was to go out there and make him react to my punches, work on the body and when I saw those openings I just couldn’t let it go. I don’t know what happened.

As the fight drew near Escudero knew he was going to be close on making the weight limit. After his official weigh-in he missed the mark by three pounds resulting in a fine that awarded 20% of his fight purse to his opponent. When asked if the disappointment of coming in over the weight limit played a role in the fight he responded…

I don’t want to take anything away from him. Really…yeah, Oliveira came in and did what he had to do, but yeah, I had a little bit of a mental setback from the weight cut and stuff because my body just stopped sweating and what not. But I should have cleared that out before I stepped into the Octagon. Now, I can say this… That’s my last loss for a long time and I want everybody to quote my words because I’m injury free, I’m back in the gym tomorrow and I’m only gonna get better and I’m only gonna get faster and stronger. Right now, there is a big, big fire under me.”

With the final round crossing the half way point the action took a turn as Escudero’s leg kick was caught and Oliveira used their momentum and the cage for a strong takedown. As Escudero scrambled to get up he still had a hold of Olveira’s right leg and the Brazilian wrapped his free leg around and took Escudero’s back. Oliveira was never able to get his arm fully under Efrain’s chin but he still forced the tap. When asked to describe the submission Escudero said…

When he took my back my mouth was open and he ripped where my gums are. It tore all inside there so when he got that choke he was mostly just cranking on my jaw really hard. You know, usually I wouldn’t tap to those things but it was only getting tighter and tighter.

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