UFC Vegas 20 has been unable to escape the fate of its predecessors.
Several battles were canceled at once, as a result of which the tournament program was noticeably reduced.
Moreover, Angela Hill and Ashley Yoder were confident to the last of the fight and only a few hours before the show were notified that it would not take place.
According to MMA Junkie, the reason was a positive coronavirus test from one of the Yoder team members.
At the same time, in the Absolute Fighting Championship itself, they did without specifics and noted that the reason was the violation of the COVID-19 protocols.
One day before the tournament, it became known about the cancellation of another fight.
This time, domestic fans who were expecting to see Ramazan Kuramagomedov's debut in the organization suffered.
The undefeated Russian (8: 0) came on as a substitute for Randy Brown and was supposed to fight with the most experienced Alex Cowboy Oliveira, but withdrew from the event due to illness.
However, the exact reasons were not named.
His compatriot Maxim Grishin, who exceeded the limit of the light heavy category by two kilograms, was also under threat.
In the promotion, it was decided that his fight with Dustin Jacoby would be held in the intermediate weight, and also deprived the fighter of 30% of the amount of the fee.
After the first round, one might get the impression that Grishin managed to recover from a not very successful weight-race.
He looked very cool and dominated both standing and clinching.
Jacoby tried to work from a distance and relied on his jab, but regularly ran into counter punches.
Two of them were so unexpected for the American that he ended up on the floor.
The Russian tried to finish off, but in the first case he lacked accuracy, and in the second - time.
Nevertheless, Maxim issued two knockdowns and could well count on a score of 10: 8 at the end of the five-minute period.
From the second round, the problems caused by the unsuccessful cut-off process began to manifest themselves.
Grishin noticeably got tired, slowed down and began not to keep up with Jacobi.
Not to say that he did something outstanding: he moved well and alternated jabs with the recently popular kaf-kicks (kick to the calf muscle).
But against the background of Maxim, he looked advantageous, even if this was not reflected by the statistics of significant hits - 18:18.
Grishin's coaches understood that in order to guarantee the victory, their ward must confidently carry out the third segment and demanded that he make a takedown.
However, this plan was not implemented.
The problem with the left leg, which suffered from numerous low-kicks throughout the battle, was a big problem.
In one of the episodes, Maxim stumbled and limped, after which he practically did not have to count on translation.
In general, the third round turned out to be equal, and Jacoby managed to surpass his opponent by just one hit.
On the eve of the official announcement, Grishin was confident of his triumph.
Surely he hoped that the knockdowns in the first round would play their role and would allow him, if not to win, then at least count on a draw.
But the judges decided differently and preferred Jacoby.
For Maxim, this defeat was the second in the Absolute Fighting Championship and the ninth in his career.
As part of the preliminary card, three more fights took place, the fate of two of which was in the hands of the judges.
The once promising Alexander Hernandez continued to alternate victories and defeats, losing to Thiago Moises.
Sabina Mazo could not extend the unbeaten streak of three fights and Alexis Davis was beaten.
Only Ronnie Lawrence managed to leave the octagon ahead of schedule.
Their fight with Vince Cachero lasted just over two and a half rounds and ended with a TKO.
The 28-year-old American scored an opponent on the ground in a not very spectacular manner, but still received a $ 50,000 bonus for “Performance of the Evening”.
True, this is hardly his merit.
The fact is that none of the subsequent fights was stopped ahead of schedule, so Dana White and company had no other choice.
The beginning of the main card did not please with spectacular episodes.
A rather spectacular fighter Alex Caceres was forced to work in clinch and stalls for most of the fight, so he was unable to demonstrate his entire arsenal.
His opponent was not going to exchange with him in the rack and tried with all his might to drag him to the floor.
In total, Kevin Krum made 16 takedown attempts, but only one was successful.
In terms of strikes, he lost outright (16:48) and did not impress the judges.
According to the UFC, the most spectacular fight was between Pedro Muñoz and Jimmy Rivera.
The bantamweight fighters did not resort to wrestling and preferred to exchange fiercely in the stance, which the fans probably liked.
They delivered 159 significant hits in total and deservedly received a cash bonus for "Fight of the Evening".
At the same time, Muñoz was a little more accurate in each of the rounds, thanks to which he took over for the first time since March 2019 and interrupted a streak of two defeats.
Montana De La Rosa and Mairo Bueno Silva could not determine the winner, and the result of the bout was a draw by majority decision.
After that, the participants of the second most important fight of the evening were in the cage.
They were one of the strongest fighters of the light heavyweight division - Magomed Ankalaev and Nikita Krylov.
At the same time, technically, their meeting could well be regarded as a battle between compatriots.
In 2019, the Ukrainian applied for a Russian passport, but the process was delayed due to the increased employment of the athlete.
Krylov, as expected, did not exchange in a stand with a dangerous drummer and tried to use the same tactics as in the battle with Johnny Walker.
He immediately decided to go to his feet and succeeded.
He managed to pull his opponent into a clinch and press him to the net, and subsequently to carry out a full takedown.
Not to say that Nikita was actively working on the ground.
First of all, he tried to force Magomed to spend his strength, "acidify" and become less formidable in the stance.
Ankalaev won the last three fights ahead of schedule, which was clearly meant by the Ukrainian's coaches.
However, in the second round, Krylov started having problems.
He spent the first half well and fought on equal terms with Ankalaev in the rack, but then got tired.
In addition, there were added problems with the left hand, which became known during the break.
In the course of communication with the coaches, Nikita admitted that she “does not work”, which could indicate an injury.
In such conditions, it was extremely difficult to compete with the 11th number in the rating.
Magomed surprised his fans and this time decided to combine standing and ground work.
At the same time, he focused on the second aspect, carrying out a total of three takedowns at once.
Considering the fact that in his previous six fights in the UFC, he only transferred his opponent to the floor twice, this was a big surprise.
The world champion in combat sambo showed that he does not own this title for nothing and spent 5 minutes 59 seconds in a dominant position.
This was enough to win the judges over to their side.
All three gave preference to Ankalaev with a minimal difference in the score (29:28) and helped him win the sixth fight in a row.
We can safely say that soon Magomed will be among the ten strongest light heavyweights on the planet and will get a chance to fight with even brighter opponents.
As for Krylov, he lost the third of the last five battles.
Surely many fans believed that if the main battle of the evening lasted more than one round, it would definitely not reach the decision of the judges.
Cyril Gan completed three of four battles in the UFC ahead of schedule, and Jairzinho Rosenstrike never spent all of his allotted time in a cage.
However, this time everything turned out differently.
The Frenchman either worked no distance, or initiated attempts to transfer to the ground, and the native of Suriname was completely a shadow of himself.
He could not find the distance, and attempts to catch the enemy with a counterattack did not bring success.
At the end of five rounds, Gan more than twice (102: 42) surpassed Rosenstrike in the number of significant strikes, not allowing him to hit more than ten times in a five-minute period.
Combined with two takedowns, this was more than enough for the final victory.
The Frenchman confidently prevailed over the fourth division number, won the eighth fight of his career and remained undefeated.