By the decision of the matchmakers, the sixth UFC tournament in the Fight Island series opened with two fights with the participation of Russian fighters.
In the first of them, the representative of the lightest weight Said Nurmagomedov met with Mark Shtrigl and tried to rehabilitate himself for an offensive defeat.
In December 2019, the lightweight champion's namesake could not cope with the wrestling skills of Raoni Barcelos and lost by a decision.
This time, the bright drummer got a much more comfortable opponent, also specializing in standing.
Strigl spent most of his career in not the largest Philippine promotions, managed to try his hand at ONE FC, but achieved the greatest success at URCC.
There he won the featherweight champion belt, thanks to which he earned an invitation to the Absolute Fighting Championship.
True, he failed to leave on a high note.
In his last fight within the organization, Mark struck a forbidden blow to the groin of an opponent, due to which that fight was declared invalid.
It is noteworthy that initially Shtrigl was supposed to meet with another Russian, Timur Valiev, but a few days before UFC Vegas 7, the Filipino passed a positive test for coronavirus and was forced to withdraw from the tournament.
As a result, instead of the same debutant, he got an experienced Nurmagomedov as an opponent.
As a result - only 51 seconds in the octagon and the hardest knockout defeat.
Said clearly demonstrated that he was significantly superior to Mark in skill and easily caught him in the oncoming traffic.
He shook the opponent with an accurate left hook, followed by a finishing move.
At the end of the duel, Strigl did not act very respectfully and did not appear at the official announcement of the winner, hastily leaving the cage.
True, this did not spoil the mood of Nurmagomedov.
Said won the third fight under the auspices of the largest MMA promotion and continued to fight for getting into the top 15 of his category.
After this fight, the second purely Russian match in the history of the UFC took place.
The first one took place at the Moscow tournament of the Fight Night series in November 2019 and ended with the victory of Rustam Khabilov over Sergey Khandozhko by unanimous decision.
Maxim Grishin and Gadzhimurad Antigulov took over the welterweight race.
The light heavyweight fighters were remembered for a much brighter performance, and its outcome was decided in the second round.
The first five-minute period turned out to be not the brightest and was more likely in a tactical struggle, but in the second the opponents began to act much less carefully.
The first 90 seconds were left for Antigulov, who was noted for a spectacular, albeit inaccurate, roundhouse kick, as well as an amplitude throw to the ground and control on the ground.
True, he did not succeed in causing serious damage to his opponent, and the unsuccessful guillotine led to Grishin being in full mount (dominating position from above).
True, he failed to take full advantage of this chance.
The headshots were unaccented and could not force the referee to intervene.
The most intense was the last minute of the round.
Antigulov rushed to the attack and carried out a combination of a jab, right direct and right uppercut, which could well draw the line under the confrontation.
But Grishin held out, and then pressed the opponent to the net and achieved an early victory.
The right straight and lateral hit right on target and made Gadzhimurad go into a deaf defense.
He had only a couple of seconds to hold out until the gong, but the referee decided to stop the fight.
Grishin won his first victory in the UFC and closed the defeat in his debut fight.
In July, Maxim replaced heavyweight Alexander Romanov and lost to ex-M-1 Global champion Marcin Tybura.
Antigulov lost the fourth fight in a row in the championship, which may cost him a contract with the organization.
In general, the tournament was not the richest in knockouts.
The next six bouts lasted all designated 15 minutes, and the judges were forced to determine the victors.
Nevertheless, the battle between Guram Kutateladze and Mateush Gamrot impressed the management of the promotion so much that its participants received a cash bonus for the "Fight of the Evening".
Initially, Hamroth, who did not know defeat, had to fight with the Russian Magomed Mustafayev, but he withdrew from the tournament for an unknown reason.
Kutateladze came on as a replacement and created a sensation.
He worked well in the stance and, although he was marked with fewer accurate hits, he sent his opponent down in the second round.
The Pole tried to use his wrestling skills to the maximum and even made five takedowns, but this was not enough.
Two of the three judges opted for a friend of rising UFC star Khamzat Chimaev, who oversaw the show with head of promotion Dana White.
Got it done in 1️⃣.
💵 @JessicaMMAPro & @CruteJim secure tonight's bonuses.
[B2YB @ O2Tactical] # UFCFightIsland6pic.twitter.com / 3kXlKkd7Lp
- UFC (@ufc) October 18, 2020
Performance of the Night awards went to Jimmy Cool and Jessica Andrada.
The American sent Lithuanian Modestas Bukauskas to the canvas in the first round.
With a heavy right straight, he caught him on the move, after which he found the opponent's jaw twice more.
The Brazilian, on the other hand, was noted for an infrequent knockout for mixed martial arts after a series of blows to the body, and Kathleen Chukagian became the "victim".
The American missed a very unpleasant hook on the torso at the exit of the clinch, after which she could no longer offer decent resistance.
The decisive one turned out to be one more right side of the spleen.
This is not the first time Andrade pleases fans with unique knockouts.
So, in 2019, she prevailed over Rose Namajunas, literally hitting her on the floor with an amplitude throw.
This allowed her to win the title in the minimum weight and get into the RT rating of the best early victories of the year.
In the main fight of the evening, Brian Ortega and Cheng Sung Jung met, and the title of the first contender for the featherweight title was at stake.
Initially, Zabit Magomedsharipov, who won all six fights in the UFC, was considered the favorite in the dispute over the meeting with Alexander Volkanovski.
But the failure of the fight with Yair Rodriguez kicked him out of the championship race.
The battle between the American and the Korean turned out to be extremely intense.
Cheng Song Joong acted as the first number and constantly pressed Ortega, but he was much more accurate and sharper.
The American delivered twice as many significant hits (127 - 62), and his hit rate was also noticeably higher (59% - 38%).
The picture was only supplemented by three successful takedown attempts and two knockdowns.
After five rounds, all three judges gave him the victory by unanimous decision.
For Brian, this success was the first in two and a half years, which did not prevent him from receiving the title of candidate for champion again.