The former Invicta FC champion spent the better part of 15 minutes pressing Julija Stoliarenko against the cage and controlling the action from the clinch en route to a lopsided unanimous decision victory. The judges scored the fight 30-26, 30-27 and 30-27 with Kunitskaya getting the nod.
It was a battle of positions against the cage throughout the fight with Kunitskaya pressing the action and Stoliarenko defending with her back on the fence. While Stoliarenko did make an attempt to drag the fight to the ground, Kunitskaya avoided the grappling exchanges and then landing some nice inside elbows and knees from the clinch.
It was more of the same moving into the second round with Kunitskaya bullying Stoliarenko around the octagon, pushing her to the cage and then peppering away with short punches from the inside.
Despite her best attempts, Stoliarenko just couldn’t break free from her opponent’s grip with Kunitskaya staying busy while adding to her strike count with several stiff knees as well. Stoliarenko did manage to throw an armbar attempt at Kunitskaya late in the second round but she just couldn’t wrap up the submission.
Outside of that moment, Stoliarenko spent the majority of the fight with her back to the fence with Kunitskaya controlling the action and staying busy enough to avoid being separated from the clinch.
After suffering a TKO loss to Aspen Ladd in her last outing, Kunitskaya definitely needed a win and she got the job done on Saturday night. Kunitskaya is now 3-1 in her past four fights as she continues her climb up the bantamweight ranks.
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