ACA 132 in Minsk was remembered for the heavyweight fights, although it did not claim to be something unique.
As usual, the league organizes tournaments in Belarus to give an opportunity to fighters from far abroad who find it problematic to play in Russia.
To a lesser extent, this is due to the restrictions caused by the fight against coronavirus, and to a greater extent - to politics. At the end of last year, the United States imposed sanctions against Ramzan Kadyrov, which included the Akhmat fight club. This put the organization's American fighters in a quandary, as well as fighters from the European Union. To help athletes avoid legal problems, the league has begun to host more tournaments outside of Russia. Therefore, Tony Johnson's two previous victorious title fights were held in Poland and Belarus.
19 foreigners and only five representatives of Russia took part in the ACA 132 tournament.
For comparison, at the previous ACA evening there were only nine foreigners and 17 Russians.
Heavyweights Daniel James and Rafael Pessoa missed the main card, but had a bright fight and especially the second round.
The 39-year-old American kicked off quickly and powerfully, slamming the former UFC fighter with heavy punches.
The Brazilian was even knocked down, but managed to get out of a difficult situation.
The starting onslaught took a lot of strength from James, so Pessoa seized the initiative and even managed to make a throw, but executed it so poorly that he almost immediately found himself under the American.
James got a second chance.
He grabbed Pessoa's hand and began to strike punches in the face, forcing the referee to stop the meeting.
The main card opened with a fight of the brightest lightweights. Levan Makashvili gained fame when he inflicted the first defeat in his career to Rasul Mirzaev, and Herderson Batista has been playing consistently in the ACA for several years, having fought with many top fighters. Moreover, the student of the legendary Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira continues to grow.
That evening, a cold-blooded system was read in every action of Herderson. Batista did not notice the single attacks of the Georgian fighter, and with his hits he often threw his opponent to the net. Two rounds in a standing position undoubtedly went to the Brazilian's piggy bank, and the last five minutes were taken by the native of Gori. The only time in the entire fight Batista failed to defend against Makashvili's passage, and the fighters spent about 200 seconds on the ground, but without the threat of an early end. Batista won by unanimous decision and declared that he is the real lightweight champion.
Until the end of the evening, there was no more recourse to judicial notes.
Nikola Dipchikov became the author of the main sensation of the tournament.
In April of this year, he lost the fight for the interim middleweight title to Magomedrasul Hasanov, and now he was opposed by another basic wrestler, Chris Honeycutt.
The American became famous for his sensational victory over Alexander Shlemenko, and it was he who was considered the favorite.
Chris was let down by his incredible self-confidence.
After Dipchikov's fall at the start, Honeycutt, with all his might, forgetting about the defense, climbed into the guard, where the Bulgarian met him with three powerful elbows on his temple and turned off the "light" for the American.
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The victory turned out to be bright, but Beslan Isaev managed to surpass Dipchikov.
He was opposed by Christian Brinzan.
The meeting lasted a little over a minute, but in this short period the Italian missed a monstrous number of punches.
The ending turned out to be even more spectacular.
The fighters caught each other in the oncoming traffic, and if Isaev managed to get up after a couple of seconds, Brinzan, after a hard fall, did not even come out to declare the winner.
Denis Smoldarev, who appeared next, spent less time fighting with his opponent.
Czech Michal Martinek missed the cross at the end of the 15th second and lay in the cage for the next 15 seconds, taking powerful blows from the Estonian.
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The confrontation between Mukhumat Vakhaev and Tony "Hulk" Johnson began at a press conference, where the fighters first met face to face.
The American said that he would smash the opponent in the cage.
Vakhaev did not like this statement.
He pounced on the reigning champion right in the hall, slapped him in the face and tried to add more, but did not have time, the guards took the fighters away.
However, in the cage, the rivals at first behaved more restrained.
After reconnaissance, Mukhumat was the first to take action.
He managed to lift the 120-kilogram American from the ground and transfer him to the stalls.
The Hulk in this episode worked decisively and quickly.
At the cost of a few missed punches, he got to his feet.
A small price to pay, because in the open guard position Vakhaev won four early victories in previous fights.
The fighters returned to the rack, Johnson worked a little more actively.
The Russian missed a lot, but this is typical of his battles.
According to the head coach of the Akhmat fight club, Murad Bichuev, Mukhumat is doing an incredible job of softening the missed strikes.
It relaxes the head at the moment of hits, reducing their power.
This time, the tactics of the Russian fighter did not work.
After another slope, Johnson caught him in the oncoming traffic and Vakhaev's legs began to dance.
Johnson did not have to be invited twice - he quickly went forward, building on the success.
After a couple of seconds, the American knocked down his opponent and proceeded to finish off on the ground, which ended the meeting.
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A year ago, it seemed that Tony was just waiting for the moment successfully, knocking out Daniel Omelyanchuk and taking the ACA championship belt, and in the meantime, he had a second successful defense.
And he finished all the fights with knockouts.
The next rival of the Hulk may be another Vakhaev - Alikhan.
He was originally supposed to enter the octagon with Johnson, but withdrew due to injury.
And you shouldn't write off two more former champions of the league, Evgeny Goncharov and Salimgerey Rasulov, but they seem to first have to determine the strongest among themselves.