Vancouver’s Ricky Simón loses fight to Vinicius Oliveira at UFC 303

Vancouver mixed martial arts fighter Ricky Simón lost by unanimous decision on Saturday afternoon in his first fight in the octagon since January.

Judges scored the bantamweight bout 30-27, 30-27, 29-28 in favor of Vinicius Oliveira, who’s from Brazil, in the opening fight of the early preliminary bouts of UFC 303 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Simón (20-6), a Union High alum, was 2 for 11 on his takedown attempts against Oliveria (21-3). Both of Simón’s takedowns were in the second round.

At the end of round Oliveira hurt his right leg on a kick that Simón checked with his left knee. It left Oliveira hobbled, but he stayed up through the final seconds.

Oliveira scored his only takedown of Simón in the closing seconds of the third round.

Simón was 44 of 98 on total strikes to Oliveira’s 96 of 237.

Simón’s last fight was a loss by decision to Mario Bautista on Jan. 13.

Later Saturday in the UFC 303 main event, light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira was scheduled to face No. 1 challenger Jiri Prochazka and featherweight Brian Ortega was scheduled to face Diego Lopes in the co-main event.