Successful comeback: how Salikhov beat Trinaldo at UFC Vegas 28 and won his first fight in 11 months

The Absolute Fighting Championship held its first tournament after a two-week break. Despite the fact that the card turned out to be not the richest in names, for many Russian fans this event was of serious interest. The reason is the long-awaited return to the octagon of Muslim Salikhov, whose last fight took place 11 months ago. At a numbered show in Abu Dhabi, he defeated Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos, after which he was twice forced to withdraw from the fights. This time he was opposed by another Brazilian - UFC veteran Francisco Trinaldo, who won 16 victories under the auspices of the largest MMA promotion on the planet.

Although 42-year-old Trinaldo was considered an underdog, even despite his venerable age by the standards of mixed martial arts, he was still a danger to opponents, which he clearly demonstrated lately. In the period from November 2019, he won three times in a row, and the last time he effectively knocked out Jai Herbert in 90 seconds.

And for most of the first round, Trinaldo was practically on a par with Salikhov. He actively pressed the Russian, trying to threaten him not only with exchanges in the standing position, but also with passes to the legs, but did not keep up a little with the younger and faster opponent. Muslim was more active and much more accurate. So, 26 of the 49 hits he hit hit the target, while Francisco hit only 13 times. And 30 seconds before the end, the King of Kung Fu was close to adding another early victory to the collection. The Brazilian went forward too adventurously, ran into a series of oncoming hits and collapsed on his back. The Russian tried to finish off, but did not succeed.

There was every reason to expect that the late knockdown would noticeably affect Trinaldo's condition in the opening of the second round, but he miraculously recovered. He not only came to his senses, but also had a rather impressive second round, not inferior to his opponent in the number of hits (16:16). Nevertheless, Salikhov's strikes were more dangerous. The Russian worked great with his feet, powerfully punching his counterpart on the body, and at the end of the second minute he almost sent the Brazilian back to the canvas. Muslim made a good shot towards, but Francisco survived.

Success in the first two rounds practically guaranteed the Russian citizen a victory by decision of the judges, but the events in the opening of the third almost canceled out all his efforts.

During one of the exchanges, Salikhov received a poke in the eye and was close to repeating the fate of Alan Patrick.

In the fourth fight of the evening, he also received a blow to the eyes, after which he could not continue his performance, as a result of which his battle with Mason Jones was declared invalid.

Salikhov was much more fortunate.

The hit turned out to be not so accented, as a result of which it did not come to stopping the battle.

However, the long hiatus was good for Francisco.

He rushed forward and several times dangerously hit the Russian.

In one of the episodes, Muslim missed the right kick and staggered, but managed to withstand.

The second half of the round was already dictated by Salikhov. He came to his senses and began to work from a distance. In the course went branded "turntables" in the head and kicks in the body, more than once caught Trinaldo by surprise. To top it off, Muslim demonstrated his wrestling skills and laid Francisco on the floor with an amplitude throw. This allowed him to brighten up the impression of an unsuccessful first half and win the judges to his side. The Russian won with a score of 30:27 and won his fifth victory in a row.

In addition to Salikhov's successful performance, the preliminary UFC Vegas 28 card was remembered for the technical knockout performed by Manon Firot and the triumph of Ilir Latifi, who won the first fight since February 2018. Meanwhile, the main card participants became the owners of the cash bonuses for the "Fight" and "Performance" of the evening. The first of them went to welterweights Santiago Ponzinibbio and Miguel Baeza, who arranged an uncompromising cut. In 15 minutes, the opponents inflicted a total of 215 accurate hits, but the first of them was slightly more accurate.

The show was crowned by two fights in the heavy division, none of which lasted more than five minutes. First, Marcin Tybura inflicted the third defeat in a row to Walt Harris and extended his own unbeaten streak to five fights. In the course of the first round, the Pole was noticeably inferior to the American and, in general, delivered almost six times fewer significant strikes (4:23), but everything predetermined his skills on the ground. The ex-champion of M-1 Global knocked the vis-a-vis on the floor, went to the back mount and made a finishing move.

In the main battle of the evening, Jairzinho Rosenstrike defeated Augusto Sakai. As in the battle with Alistair Overeem, the native of Suriname saved the smashing attack to the very ending and knocked out his counterpart a second before the end of the round. Thus, he successfully replaced Shamil Abdurakhimov, who was unable to take part in the tournament due to visa problems, and won the sixth fight by knockout in the UFC.