Ivan OrekhovSport correspondentAll materialsThe main MMA promotion of the world stayed in Salt Lake City (USA) and drove the capital of the 2002 Winter Olympics crazy. Unsuccessful King Kong hunt First things first. In the final match of the prelims, the undefeated Moldavian «heavyweight» Alexander Romanov fought against the Pole Marcin Tybura, who in the last match lost to the Russian Alexander Volkov. At first, everything went perfectly: King Kong (Romanov's formidable nickname) wiped the octagon with his opponent in the classic way, not allowing Tybura to finish a single blow in the first round. But in the second, Alexander's forces failed. The much more experienced Tybura saved his cardio, and, not without problems, taking the second and third five-minute periods, won the majority decision. For Romanov, who was extremely surprised by the result of a bright fight, this defeat was the first in 17 fights in professional MMA.Georgian contender The main victory in Merab Dvalishvili's career: in three rounds, the fighter from Tbilisi showed all the best qualities in the fight with the legendary Jose Aldo. Yes, at UFC 278, the Brazilian did not look like his best version at all, but the success of the Georgian and the impressiveness of the eight-match winstreak will not cancel this. That's why the best option for the «Machine» will be Marlon Vera, who a week earlier sent another pioneer of the organization Dominic Cruz face to the floor. An Unsinkable Legend For more than three years, fans have not seen former league middleweight champion Luke Rockhold in a cage. Two defeats in a row by knockouts, loss of motivation and big projects «on the side», including modeling contracts, took the American out of the game for a long time. And now, the long-awaited return. Which, to be honest, seriously scared the fans of the fighter from the covers of magazines — after all, the hungry wolf Paulo Costa, famous for his pressure and knockout power, came out against the MMA veteran. But contrary to forecasts and age, long downtime and sagging «breather» Luke survived! Yes, he lost, but what Rockhold did this weekend was a great starting point for the fighter's big sports career. He writhed in pain and delivered explosive blows exactly to the jaw, survived in the stalls and loaded the “turntables”, the sound of blows from which was heard even in sleepy Moscow. Luke also triumphantly raised his hands and cried, speaking of the end of his career. By the way, at the end of the 15-minute massacre, the US representative took a dominant position in the stalls … And smeared his opponent's head with a bloodied face. Crazy. P4P number one downfall The last tournament of summer 2022 featured an amazing main event featuring P4P top fighter Kamaru Usman and #1 welterweight contender Leon Edwards. There are plenty of reasons why this rematch shouldn't have been missed:
- —If he wins, Nigerian Nightmare would have caught up with Brazilian legend Anderson Silva, who has won 16 UFC fights in a row ;
- —UFC Champion Usman was also one step away from a sixth defense and a run to light heavyweight for the league's second belt;
- —Leon had a 10-match unbeaten streak on the line.