An important tournament of the Ultimate Fighting Championship has ended in Las Vegas (UFC) Fight Night 227, dedicated to Mexican Independence Day. The attention of Russian MMA fans was focused on two fighters from the post-Soviet space, Valentina Shevchenko from Kyrgyzstan and Russian Roman Kopylov – their fights will be discussed in the Sport report.
Bulletproof In March, the promotion staged a chic tournament in Sin City with the return of the “greatest” Jon Jones. But what was shocking at that event was not only Kostlyavy’s dominant performance, but also the sensational defeat of Valentina Shevchenko, who had not lost since September 2017. And then Pula (the nickname of the former owner of the belt – editor's note) had to “knock” as a sign of surrender: Mexican Alexa Grasso caught the native of Bishkek and, after a flawless choke, became the new flyweight champion.
An immediate rematch was the case time.
The first match turned out great. And the second one is even cooler! The girls showed fans the best side of women's MMA with a 25-minute thriller inside the octagon. These five rounds included Vali's knockdown with an instant somersault back and restoration of balance, knee strikes to the head from Grasso on the verge of a foul, hard work on the ground from Pulya and several dangerous submission attempts by the current champion.
The initiative for the fifth round went to Valentina. She just had to wait until the final siren… She couldn’t wait. As in the ill-fated first confrontation, Shevchenko launched her opponent behind her back and gave the belt owner the ending. At first, it even seemed that a failure in the final five minutes would lead to a second defeat for Puli from the beaten Grasso, but he was lucky: the judges counted a draw (47-47, 47-48, 48-47), which became a fair outcome of the showdown in Vegas. However, there were still questions for one of the judges, who gave the fifth round to Grasso with a score of 10-8. This is absurd.
We look forward to the show continuing in an (immediate) trilogy. The belt remains with the cute athlete from Guadalajara.
The bloody hunt for the American The best part of the career of Russian knockout artist Roman Kopylov continues. After two defeats at the start of his UFC career, the mercilessly criticized striker seemed to be replaced – three fights, three finishes… Plus flattering words from the press and the head of the league himself, Dana White.
After the July “murder” of Brazilian Claudio Ribeiro, Kopylov decided not to take a long break and agreed to return to the Octagon a month and a half later. Fortunately, the American Josh Fremd, who replaced Anthony Hernandez, opened as a clear underdog and was supposed to become a convenient opponent for the new thunderstorm of the middle division, which received a new champion last weekend.
Dimensions (the American is more than 10 centimeters taller than Roman) are very helped Fremd at the start. He actively worked on Kopylov’s legs and body, significantly surpassing his opponent in the number of blows… But not in quality. The Siberian exploded in series, and each of his attacks forced Josh to either back away or unsuccessfully try to take the fight to the ground.
During the break, the owner of the cage left with his face bleeding. But Fremd held on, did not want to “fold” under Roman’s harsh punches. At the end of the second round, the American again struck Kopylov below the belt, which seemed to anger the curly-haired “killer”: Kopylov first kicked and then punched his opponent’s right side, who lost all desire to continue from the pain. It didn’t even require a finishing move—the fourth knockout in a row! Only Sergei Pavlovich has a more impressive streak in the UFC (the Russian hero has six knockouts in a row).
The road to the top 15 of the updated ranking is open.
Other UFC Fight Night 227 results:
- In what turned out to be a boring co-main event of the evening, Jack Della Maddalena defeated Kevin Holland by split decision. The Australian is now 6-0 in the UFC;
- The youngest fighter in the history of the organization, Raul Rosas Jr. pleased the T-Mobile Arena with a knockout in the first minute. The young Mexican suffered the first defeat in his professional career in a previous fight – so, he managed to rehabilitate himself;
- Tracy Cortez does not lose in the UFC. She defeated Jasmine Jasdavicius and won her fifth victory in the main MMA promotion of the world;
- The fight between Edgar Chairez and Daniel Lacerda had to be left without a judge's decision. And this is very rare. The fact is that the referee mistakenly stopped the fight, thinking that one of the athletes passed out after a choke hold. Thanks to the replay, which helped to make the right verdict.
