29-0! Khabib Nurmagomedov is unstoppable! UFC champion in Abu Dhabi has defended his belt!
ROUND 1
What a fight! At the start of the round, there was great pressure from Khabib. Gaethje attacked low kick, defended one knockdown, and then at one point hit the champion with an uppercut and the hook. 40 seconds before the end Khabib moves the fight to the ground, trying to pull the armbar, but there wasn’t enough time.
ROUND 2
Gaethje has a nosebleed and he’s avoiding Khabib’s takedowns as much as he can, but Khabib’s pressure is just unstoppable. After only a minute Khabib managed to take Gaethje down and improve his position into a ‘full mount’ and was the beginning of the end for Gaethje as he got triangle choked and fall asleep.
Perhaps Khabib’s best performance of his entire career
Khabib has been putting incredible pressure on Gaethje since the start of the fight who has failed to follow for more than a round and a half. Already at the end of the first round, Gaethje was looking towards the traffic light, he was breathing hard and found himself on the ground.
At the start of the second round, Khabib knocked Justin down again, very quickly found and pulled out his arm, folded the triangle with his feet, and put him to sleep. Gaethje was tapping, the judge did not see at first, so Khabib had to say that his opponent had fallen asleep.
It was Khabib’s 29th career victory that came to an end. He said he didn’t want to fight anymore, especially not against the fighters he already defeated. The last thing he asked of the UFC was to put him first in the “pound for pound” rankings.
Khabib Nurmagomedov Announced Retirement
Immediately after the victory, Khabib announced the end of his career after he broke down and cried after a fight remembering his father and mentor who passed away this year. He says he promised his mother he would not fight again.
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Phenomenal title fight, Whittaker won a rematch with Adesanya
We saw a great middleweight bout in the title fight of the evening. Robert Whittaker celebrated against Jared Cannonier by a unanimous referee decision, but the match could have ended in two of the three rounds we saw.
Whittaker was on the verge of finishing the match in the second, especially in the third round, but then found himself shaken in the last minute after one wild shot by Cannonier.
It would have been one of the craziest and biggest upheavals in UFC history if Cannonier had managed to knock out the Australian, but it didn’t happen.
Whittaker will thus once again get a chance to fight Israel Adesanya, who stripped him of his championship belt last year.
Alexander Volkov celebrated against Walt Harris
One of the best heavyweights of today, Alexander Volkov, celebrated against Walt Harris in the first of the three biggest fights of the evening. The Russian nicknamed “Drago” celebrated his birthday after a minute and 15 seconds of the second round by technical knockout.
Already at the end of the first round, the plump Harris was missing, and when a “front kick” of a tall Russian sat in the plexus at the beginning of the second, that was the end of the story.
He immediately had a painful reaction that Volkov recognized and moved forward towards the American. After a few more blows by Volkov, the referee stopped the duel and declared him the winner.
The second fastest knockout in middleweight history by Phil Hawes against Jacob Malkoun
Hawes pushed Malkoun to the wire and hit him in the ear with one right-handed direct shook the Australian and sent him to the floor. He tried to get up but in that attempt, Hawes placed a few more clean kicks from the crochet and sent Malkoun to sleep.
For Hawes, it was the ninth victory in his career in which he also has two defeats. Malkoun, on the other hand, suffered his first defeat in his professional career, in which he has only one victory.
Lauren Murphy destroyed Lilia Shakirova
In the only women’s fight, Lauren Murphy declassified Lilia Shakirova and took her back, and suffocated her in the second round. Only one real blow was allowed by Murphy towards herself, and she finally forced her rival to surrender, who made her UFC debut tonight.
Murphy reached her 4th consecutive victory in the flyweight category, after which she requested a fight for the championship belt, currently held by Valentina Shevchenko.
Gaethje Revealed What He Said to Khabib at the Most Emotional Moment of UFC 254
