On the night of September 27, UFC 253 was held in Abu Dhabi, in the card of which there were two title fights at once.
Israel Adesanya made his second middleweight belt defense against Paulo Costa, while Dominic Reyes and Jan Blachovic battled for the light heavyweight title.
The title became vacant after longtime division leader John Jones stepped down as champion and announced a move to another weight.
At the same time, the attention of Russian fans at this tournament was especially attracted by the performances of Zubaira Tukhugov and Hadis Ibragimov.
The battle with Ibragimov's participation opened the 253rd tournament of the Absolute Fighting Championship.
The Russian fought three times in the UFC and lost three times, which is why he was on the verge of being fired.
In order, if not to guarantee, then at least to increase the chances of staying in the promotion, he needed to prevail over debutant Danilo Marquez.
On paper, it seemed like a solvable problem.
Although he had a good track record, which included nine victories and two defeats, he played outside his native country only once.
The first experience was unsuccessful, as a result of which he had to return to Brazil again.
Nevertheless, Marquez turned out to be stronger than it might seem at first glance.
Already in the first round, he demonstrated that it was not in vain that he trained for many years and accompanied the stars of Brazilian MMA - Demian Maya and Mauricio Rua.
Let him act quite straightforward, but he was tenacious enough to "knit" the Russian at the cage and prevent him from fully demonstrating his skills in boxing.
Hadith still managed to make some good blows, as a result of which a cut opened on the opponent's face, but Danilo looked more confident.
In the very ending, he even had a takedown and threw in a choke, but Ibragimov got out of a difficult situation.
The second and third rounds took place in a similar manner.
Exhausted by the struggle, Ibragimov tried to work in a rack, but could not achieve serious success.
The most significant achievements were several powerful hits during the final five minutes and the transition to a dominant position on the ground, which did not bring serious dividends.
The Brazilian continued to bend his line, putting pressure on the enemy and trying to make the most of his fighting skills.
Three more successful transfers to the ground allowed him to finally convince the judges of his superiority and gain the upper hand by unanimous decision.
Also, the preliminary card was remembered for the bright early victories of Juan Espino and Ludovit Kline.
The Spaniard dealt with Jeff Hughes with a rare choke hold "Scarf Hold Chok", and the Slovak knocked out Shane Young with a spectacular combination of high-kick and a series of powerful punches.
In turn, the veteran of the promotion Diego Sanchez lost to Jake Matthews.
The confrontation turned out to be very bright and bloody, but the Australian was much stronger.
The main card program was opened by Zubair Tukhugov and Hakim Davoda.
In February, the Russian took over the tough Kevin Aguilar and was determined to extend his successful streak.
Help for him was to be both the presence of his teammate Khabib Nurmagomedov in the corner, and superiority in the mass.
The Russian failed the weigh-in and was punished with a fine, but was still admitted to the show.
On the eve of the fight, Tuhugov assured that he had seriously worked on his boxing skills, and promised to demonstrate them in a duel with Davoda.
Considering that the Canadian specializes in stance fighting, this was more than ambitious.
Nevertheless, the first round turned out to be quite equal.
Both fighters did not force the course of the battle, worked in a measured manner and practically made no attempts to arrange a wheelhouse.
In the second, the opponents have noticeably increased their activity.
The exchange of blows went at a faster pace and there were much more striking hits.
Tukhugov worked as the first number and put pressure on Davoda, but he worked great on counterattacks and was more accurate (37 - 26).
Several times he found the Russian's jaw at the exit of the exchange and alternated straight to the head with low kicks.
However, the ending was dictated by Zubayra, who applied his wrestling skills.
Nurmagomedov's partner held a takedown and for a long time controlled his counterpart on the ground.
In the course of the third segment, Tuhugov noticeably got tired and slowed down, which was facilitated by unsuccessful takedown attempts.
The Russian five times tried to transfer the opponent to the flooring, but did not succeed, wasting his last strength.
Davodu seized the initiative, went ahead and completely surpassed the opponent in the stand.
The Canadian struck five times more punches (20 - 4) and won two judges over to his side.
Zubayra lost by split decision and suffered his second defeat in the UFC.
The duel between Tuhugov and Davodu turned out to be very intense, but Brandon Royval and Kai Kara-France received the award for the "Fight of the Evening".
The fight lasted just over one round, but literally abounded in the brightest episodes.
During the first five minutes, the flyweight fighters were knocked down three times, but despite this they did not slow down.
The denouement came at the 48th second of the second segment, when Royval jumped on his opponent and carried out the guillotine.
He did not resist for long and was forced to knock.
The first title fight ended in a sensation.
After the very equal battle between Dominic Reyes and John Jones, many considered Reyes to be the favorite in the confrontation with Jan Blachovic.
And at first he justified this status - he was great at controlling the distance with the help of long arms and alternating his smashing left straight with a left high-kick.
The turning point was outlined one and a half minutes before the end of the starting round.
The Pole began to move forward more and more actively and complete combinations with blows to the body.
The American was clearly not ready for this, as a result of which a hematoma developed very quickly on his right side.
In the second five minutes Blakhovich continued to go forward and “shoot” the head and body of the opponent.
Reyes was increasingly forced to retreat and no longer looked so great in ranged combat, and in close combat he lost outright.
Jan quickly realized this and began to provoke one exchange after another and very quickly achieved success.
At first, he hit Dominic's jaw several times, and 30 seconds before the gong he made a powerful left side.
The American staggered and fell to the ground, and the Pole had only to carry out the finishing move.
Blachowicz won by knockout and became the first Polish UFC men's champion.
Before him, only one representative of Poland had won the belt in the largest MMA promotion on the planet - in March 2015, Joanna Jędrzejczyk took the title in the minimum weight.
Many fans and experts expected the battle between Israel Adesanya and Paulo Costa to be one of the highlights of 2020.
Undefeated fighters confronted each other, who had 32 won battles for two, in 26 of which they won ahead of schedule.
But everything turned out differently.
The Brazilian was completely unprepared for a confrontation with the champion and suffered a crushing defeat in the second round.
He acted too carefully and could not break into close range, constantly running into low-kicks from the champion.
In the first round alone, the New Zealander struck 15 times in the legs, and in the second - 11 more.
Having properly processed Costa's left, leading leg, Adesanya began to alternate blows on the floors.
He traditionally acted as number two, but was much sharper.
As a result, by the middle of the second five-minute period, a noticeable dissection appeared on Kosta's face.
His behavior also changed.
If at first he grimaced a lot and showed in every possible way that the champion's blows did not cause him discomfort, then later he began to get nervous and increasingly rushed into rash attacks.
One of them led to his defeat.
Israel met the counterpart with the most accurate left hook and sent him to the floor, after which he finished it off.
Adesanya won his 20th career victory and successfully completed his second title defense.