288th number tournament of the Absolute Fighting Championship (UFC). Russian MMA fans, who woke up early, were able to follow the victories of their compatriots, the welterweight contenders fight and the return of the fourth double champion in the history of the league — about this and not only in the report Sports.
An amazing battle of the best< br>The March picture is still in front of my eyes: the “greatest” Jon Jones is done with Cyril Gan and, after a three-year downtime, regains the UFC championship belt. But in a heavy, new weight category. Is the age and length of absence outside the octagon nothing for the main talents of the fighting world? And after him, Henry Cejudo started a comeback: the winner of the gold of the 2008 Olympic Games (freestyle wrestling) and the ex-champion in two divisions was tired of sitting in retirement and entered the octagon for the first time since May 2020.
There were many fears, but they were in vain. No Rust: Henry lasted all five rounds in a cage with Aljamain Sterling. A champion who, after a hate for «acting» in the first fight against Petr Yan, turned into a real bounty hunter.
The main characters of the show had a very close fight: both in the wrestling and in the standing position, both had excellent opportunities to develop the situation, but their defense skills were at their best. Of course, I wanted such a confrontation to end ahead of schedule, but the old and new champions were too good that evening … A separate decision was in favor of Sterling, who «dry» the meeting by running around the cage.
Houses and walls help: the American held his third title defense in his home state.
Verdict deserved? Perhaps yes. Henry took control time (just over five minutes to Aljo's four), but lost outright on thrown/accented punches and lost on takedowns (Sterling has four successful out of 15 attempts; the Olympic champion has three of eight). No judicial scandal, because everything is decided by statistics.
Cejudo
lost, but for such a defeat is not ashamed. Most likely (Henry himself said this after the fight), this was the last fight in the career of the 36-year-old champion. You can understand a veteran: you can no longer find motivation to fight not for gold.Sterling is hyping the next fight with might and main! Immediately after the end of the fight in Newark, he had an emotional battle of views with the No. 1 contender Sean O'Malley right in the octagon. It was not without a «hustle»: Aljo's bosom friend Merab Dvalishvili somehow «stole away» the luxurious Sugarka jacket and immediately tried it on. Sean and his team were not happy with this fashion show.
Co-main event is a real disappointment
Four fighters with tough wrestling skills fought in the two main fights of the evening. And if the main event kept the audience in suspense, then the fight between Belal Muhammad and Gilbert Burns, tortured by weight racers, is to be forgotten as soon as possible, like a nightmare. The top welterweights seemed to give a damn about the fact that a chance to fight for the title was at stake, and all 25 minutes they exchanged fire at a distance with minimal risk of missing a smashing punch.
br>
We never saw him. Belal took the boring fight the old fashioned way, extended his unbeaten streak to 10 bouts, and stood in line for Colby Covington, who will have to enter the octagon with champion Leon Edwards before the end of the year.
br>
Fears for Evloev
Let's start with the fact that Movsar was supposed to fight with the American Bryce Mitchell, but the latter withdrew five days before the fight due to injury. He was replaced by Brazilian Diego Lopez, Dana White's league debutant. It would seem a frank miss-match. But we have witnessed one of the most difficult fights in the career of an undefeated Russian. In the opening itself, the native of Ingushetia was shocked; During the entire battle, he repeatedly fell for painful tricks. Moreover, the frisky no-name almost did not sag in cardio, which made those who supported Movsar even more nervous.But everything ended well. The domestic fighter over and over again went through the storm and attacked himself in the stance, adding to this control in the stalls. As a result, the hardest, but natural victory by unanimous decision is 17-0 and 7-0 in the UFC. Title Chance Closer For #10 Featherweight. =2″ width=»100%» height=»100%» allow=»autoplay; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture;» frameborder=»0″ allowfullscreen=»»>
Chic debut of the Russian
Ikram Aliskerov immediately began to fall in love with American mixed martial arts fans. The ex-Eagle FC fighter, who lost only to Khamzat Chimaev in his career, passed through the Dana White's Contender Series selection sieve to put out the light to local Philip Hawes today. It turned out cool! The Dagestani was clearly worried, there was a feeling that at times the debutant's legs gave way … But the blow from the right, single, turned out to be so accurate that the opponent immediately turned off.
While Hawes was brought to his senses, Aliskerov challenged American Bo Nickal. And we enjoyed one of the best highlights of the last show:
Other important results at UFC 288:
- American Drew Dober went on a series of three knockout victories, but he himself was «out» for the first time since 2011. The spectacular lightweight again went into the wheelhouse, but Matt Frevola was a little more successful in the exchange. In the first round, he finished Drew (a bloodied Dober strongly disagreed with the «early» stop), and then swore at British MMA star Paddy Pimblett. By the way, Matt took the opponent's series for himself — now he has three knockouts in a row; li class=»article__list-item»>
Chinese Yang Xiaonyan did something similar to a knockout from Aliskerov, who sentenced ex-champion Jessica Andrade in the first five minutes. The girl from Brazil had to be finished off, but this euphoria in the arena of the Prudential Center was no less. Note that Andrade had her 24th fight in the UFC, which is an absolute record among women; -circle»> - Kron Gracie, a member of the famed fighting clan from Brazil, lost all three rounds to Canadian Charles Jordan. This is where the simple impact: after all, the 34-year-old featherweight has not fought since October 2019.
BONUSES
Best Fight of the Night: Evloev vs. Lopez;
Best Performance of the Night: Xiaonian, Frevola.
br>