Second defense of Adesanya, fight for the Jones title and performances of Nurmagomedov's partners: the main events of September in the UFC

Ufc

vegas 9

Date and venue

: September 5, Las Vegas (USA)

Significant battles

:

Alistair Overeem - Augusto Sakai,

- Michelle Perreira

The main event of the first tournament of the Absolute Fighting Championship in September will be a bright confrontation in the most prestigious category.

Legendary heavyweight Alistair Overeem will try to defend his sixth place in the division's ranking and test the promising Augusto Sakai.

At the moment, the Brazilian has four victories in a row in the UFC, and two of them were obtained ahead of schedule.

Former M-1 Global champion Marcin Tybura and Chase Sherman were on the floor.

Also, the "victims" of the native of Curitiba were the former champion title holder Andrei Orlovsky and the Bulgarian Blagoi Ivanov.

Also on the show will be the return to light heavyweight of former interim title challenger Ovins Saint-Preux and the debut of undefeated Moldovan heavyweight Alexander Romanov.

Nevertheless, the attention of Russian fans will surely be riveted on Zelim Imadaev, who will try to interrupt a streak of two defeats and earn the right to remain in the largest MMA promotion on the planet.

His opponent will be one of the most entertaining welterweight fighters Michel Pereira, also with a streak of two failures.

Before joining the UFC, Imadayev had eight consecutive victories, making him perceived as one of the top pros in his division.

But at first he could not cope with Max Griffin, and then he was knocked out by Danny Roberts at a tournament in Moscow, as a result of which he was on the verge of being fired.

Now he needs to get the upper hand, but dealing with Pereira will be very difficult.

Yes, he sometimes gets too carried away and works more effectively than efficiently, but one cannot but respect his skill.

The Brazilian is an expert in striking technique and works great with both his legs and arms, which will definitely be a challenge in the early rounds.

This was perfectly learned by the former opponent of the Russian Roberts, who had a knockout already in the 107th second.

And no one should be misled by Michel's two defeats.

The second he suffered through his own stupidity, by inertia hitting Diego Sanchez with his knee in the head when he was on the ground.

But during the duel, he looked preferable.

Ufc

vegas 10

Date and venue

:

September 12, Las Vegas (USA)

Significant battles

:

Thiago Santos - Glover Teixeira,

- Bruno Silva,

- Sabina Mazo

A week later, the most important fight in the light heavyweight division will take place, in which the future contender for the title can be determined.

Brazilians Glover Teixera and Thiago Santos, who previously had the displeasure to meet with the first number of the pound-for-pound rating, John Jones, will compete for this right.

The first of them lost to the ex-champion in April 2014, and the second in July 2019.

It is noteworthy that after the defeat, Santos never went into the octagon and for a very long time healed severe knee injuries.

In that battle, he injured the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments, the internal lateral ligament, and the meniscus.

Teixeira, on the other hand, won four times over the past year and a half, and Nikita Krylov was one of the defeated.

Tagir Ulanbekov will make his debut at the anniversary tournament in Las Vegas.

Initially, he was supposed to perform in July, but due to the death of Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, he decided to postpone his first fight in the UFC to a later date.

In this regard, his opponent changed.

Instead of Alexander Doskalchuk, it was Bruno da Silva.

In the UFC, the Brazilian had two fights, but was never able to take over.

At first he was “strangled” by Khalid Takha, and then lost by unanimous decision to David Dvorak.

At the same time, the defeat from the Czech turned out to be rather controversial.

In two rounds, he clearly looked no worse, and in the first five minutes he almost knocked out his opponent with a spectacular front kick.

Ulanbekov clearly shouldn't underestimate Silva's standing skills, but he can't be called an impenetrable opponent either.

Bruno is not very hardy, and for the lightest weight he is rather slow and does not look very confident in clinching and parterre.

And Khabib Nurmagomedov's partner on the team is hardly bad in these aspects.

Suffice it to recall that six of Ulanbekov's 12 opponents surrendered.

Twice he caught the opponent on the arm of the elbow (armbar), and in other cases he performed a choke hold.

In this regard, it can be assumed that Tagir will try to drag Silva to the ground, and there not only test his skills in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, but also exhaust him.

After that, Bruno will become even less dangerous in the stance, which will practically deprive him of his chances of success.

Also, Russian MMA fans should pay attention to the girl-fighter Svetlana Nasibulina, better known as Justin Kish.

The athlete was born in St. Petersburg in 1988 and spent the first five years in an orphanage, after which she was adopted by an American couple.

Subsequently, she changed her name and began to compete in kickboxing and Muay Thai competitions, and then got to mixed martial arts.

In the UFC, she performs with varying success (3-2).

Her next opponent will be Colombian Sabina Mazo, who lost only once during her career.

Ufc

vegas 11

Date and venue

:

September 19, Las Vegas (USA)

Significant battles

:

Colby Covington - Tyrone Woodley, Donald Cerrone - Nico Price

According to rumors, Shamil Abdurakhimov was supposed to take part in the last tournament of the Fight Nights series in September, but his battle with Cyril Gan was postponed to October 17.

In their absence, one of the main events of the show will be the 52nd fight in Donald Cerrone's career.

Together with him, the author of one of the best knockouts of 2019 according to RT Niko Price will enter the octagon.

Bright drummers Johnny Walker and Kevin Holland will also perform on the show, and welterweight stars Tyrone Woodley and Colby Covington will meet in the main duel of the evening.

At the moment, the athletes are not doing well.

Both lost to reigning champion Kamar Usman, and Woodley to Gilbert Burns.

After that, many rushed to write him off, saying that the 38-year-old fighter's time had passed.

It is noteworthy that one of his worst enemies in the world of MMA, who only a few years ago worked as a sparring partner of the Chosen One, can confirm this theory.

For several years they trained together in the American Top Team and quite often sparred with each other, but even then it was difficult to call them friends.

Subsequently, relations between the fighters only worsened, which was largely facilitated by Colby, who spoke extremely rudely about his former partner in interviews and social networks.

Some time later, Woodley became champion, and Covington won the interim title, which should have led to their full-time duel, but it never took place.

At first, this was prevented by Tyrone's injury, and then his opponent was forced to lie on the operating table.

Over the past two years, the relationship between athletes has not changed.

Covington continued to insult the ex-champion and promised that after their fight Woodley's body would be “fed to the sharks,” and he, in turn, accused his counterpart of trying to avoid meeting in a cage.

At the end of September, former partners will finally get a chance to sort out the relationship, not in words, but in deeds.

At the same time, Colby is considered the favorite, who is able to offer Tyrone a fast pace and exhausting wrestling in the ground.

Ufc 253

Date and venue

:

September 26, Las Vegas (USA)

Significant fights

: Israel Adesanya - Paulo Costa (middleweight title), Dominic Reyes - Jan Blakhovich (light heavyweight title),

- Hakim Davodu 

The main tournament of the month in the UFC will present the fans with a rich card, which will be headed by two championship fights at once.

Israel Adesanya will make a second defense of the middleweight title, while Dominic Reyes and Jan Blakhovich will compete for the light heavyweight belt.

The title became vacant after John Jones announced his move to the most prestigious category.

As for Adesanya, he will have to fight Paulo Costa.

The Brazilian was supposed to meet with the champion at the beginning of the year, but then he was prevented by a bicep rupture.

Yoel Romero came on as a substitute, but could not win the judges over to his side.

The fight lasted all five rounds, during which Israel ran more than fought, but officials still preferred the Nigerian native.

Then the fans booed the middleweight belt holder, and a second such performance could deal an even more serious blow to his reputation.

Leading up to UFC 253, both fighters have perfect track records.

Adesanya won 19 times in a row, while the judges had to determine the triumphant only in five cases.

Costa has six wins less, but the percentage of early ones is much higher.

Only his duel with Romero lasted all the designated three rounds, and the previous 11 were completed in the first five minutes.

Until recently, Reyes was also considered undefeated.

On the eve of the duel with Jones, he had 12 victories in a row, but lost in a very close fight.

Blakhovich lost much more often - eight times.

Until 2019, he was considered a fairly average fighter and could not make it to the top of the division, but successes in battles with Luke Rockhold, Ronaldo Sousa and Corey Anderson helped him get what he wanted.

True, in the championship fight, he is still considered an "underdog".

At least according to the bookmakers.

Reyes is indeed a more versatile fighter and will feel more confident over a distance than Blakhovich.

True, the knockout power of the Pole has not been canceled either. 

The championship bouts will be preceded by a fight with the participation of Nurmagomedov's teammate.

Zubayra Tukhugov will try to extend his unbeaten streak to three fights and outline the claims for getting into the top 15 of the division, and Hakim Davoda will try to prevent him.

The Canadian is physically strong and prefers to fight in a standing position, but his skills in striking technique can hardly be called outstanding.

He acts quite actively, but often "fails", which should be of help for the Russian.

In addition, Davodu is not very strong in grappling and allows himself to be transferred to the ground, moreover, he has not met with strong wrestlers before.

However, the same Kyle Bochnyak twice sent him to the floor, and this despite the fact that he has rather modest skills in this aspect.

Tukhugov is more savvy in this regard.