{"id":491196,"date":"2026-02-22T02:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T02:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/491196\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T02:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T02:52:09","slug":"carlos-leal-pounds-his-way-to-big-win-over-chidi-njokuani","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/491196\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Leal Pounds His Way To Big Win Over Chidi Njokuani"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Carlos Leal outslugged Chidi Njokuana to earn his 23rd career win at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tapology.com\/fightcenter\/events\/136872-ufc-fight-night\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">UFC Houston<\/a> on Saturday. <\/p>\n<p>While Leal\u2019s relentless pressure was the story of the first round, things were much more even in the second. Njokuani\u2019s biggest moment came in round two when he wobbled his opponent with a big right hand. However, Njokuani failed to capitalize, allowing Leal to fight his way back in the round and likely go up 2-0. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"612\" height=\"408\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-645095 perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/gettyimages-2262877090-612x612-1.jpg\"  data-\/><\/p>\n<p>Leal continued to pour on the pressure in the second, walking down Njokuani and throwing bombs. Still, some of the most effective strikes came from Njokuani as he repeatedly kicked out Leal\u2019s lead leg. <\/p>\n<p>Despite their best efforts, neither fighter was able to land a fight-ending blow, sending us to the scorecards for the seventh time in eight bouts. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"612\" height=\"408\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-645096 perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/gettyimages-2262877095-612x612-1.jpg\"  data-\/><\/p>\n<p>Official Result: Carlos Leal def. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lowkickmma.com\/chidi-njokuani-elizeu-zaleski-dos-santos-ko-ufc\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"619058\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chidi Njokuani<\/a> via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28). <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"612\" height=\"408\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-645099 perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/gettyimages-2262877698-612x612-1.jpg\"  data-\/><\/p>\n<p>Check Out Highlights From Chidi Njokuani vs. Carlos Leal at UFC Houston:<\/p>\n<p>\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/UFConParamount\/status\/2025379837649514516\n<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlos Leal outslugged Chidi Njokuana to earn his 23rd career win at UFC Houston on Saturday. While Leal\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":["post-491196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}