Volkov's knockout, Evloev's victory and Fakhretdinov's debut: what UFC Fight Night 207 remembers

Volkov's easy success

The duel with Jairzinho Rozenstruik was in many ways decisive for Alexander Volkov, because he approached him with two defeats in his last three fights in the passive.

Last year, the Russian lost to Cyril Gan and turned out to be stronger than Marcin Tybura.

And already in March, he lost without a chance by submission in the first round to Tom Aspinall.

Another failure could finally exclude the athlete from the number of applicants for the championship title, given his age, and therefore it was necessary to take over.

At the same time, the Surinamese, starting from 2020, was defeated three times and dropped to eighth place in the heavyweight ranking.

The main question was whether Volkov would be able to draw the right conclusions from the failures.

He himself admitted that he lost to Aspinall because he was not in the best morale, and spoke about changes in the training approach.

“This time I was not preparing in Moscow.

I went to the Olympic sports base, which is located at an altitude of 1400 m above sea level, and worked there with new sparring partners and mentors, ”Sherdog quotes the words of the athlete.

He also promised to "finish" the opponent.

Thankfully, it was stylistically perfect for him.

Rozenstruik is a drummer and not as strong in wrestling as the same Aspinall, which means that Volkov could show his strong qualities.

As a result, Alexander's words did not go wrong, and he knocked out Jairzinho two minutes and 15 seconds after the start of the fight.

In such a short period of time, it is difficult to understand whether something has changed in the tactics and attitude of the athlete.

The Surinamese simply did not inflict any damage on him.

He managed to make only three blows to the head and the same number to the legs, while he missed a total of 21 accented shots.

A little anxious for the Muscovite was only when the opponent caught his shin and scored a couple of hits.

But the domestic fighter easily left the dangerous distance.

In principle, he turned out to be much faster, visually lighter and, in addition, much taller than his opponent.

And at around 2:15 the meeting was completed.

Volkov pressed his opponent to the net and managed to get an excellent right hook right in the jaw.

Rozenstruik was led, and for Alexander to finish him off was a matter of technique.

Moreover, after one of the blows, the cap flew out of the athlete's mouth.

Herb Dean, after waiting for a groove, stopped the confrontation, although the Surinamese, it seems, was not satisfied with this.

Drago did not hide his joy, because he managed to return to the victorious path.

He once again noted that he was sure of a quick knockout.

“I felt that I could finish it if the opportunity presented itself.

I know he has bad defense, especially when he is at the net.

I pressed Jairzinho to her and went on the attack, ”said the Russian in a flash interview.

He also expressed a desire to hold the next fight as soon as possible and leave on a short notice.

“I know what’s going on in the division right now.

Many guys will fight in September.

But I'm here and we'll be waiting.

We are ready for new challenges,” Volkov added.

Evloev and Fakhretdinov won by unanimous decision

In addition to Volkov, two more Russians fought in Las Vegas.

The first to do this was UFC debutant Rinat Fakhretdinov.

A native of Mordovia last year knocked out Eric Spicely in 55 seconds in front of Dana White and received a contract.

Thus, he became the first Tatar in the history of the promotion, he was also allowed to enter the octagon in a skullcap.

No less interesting was the presence in the corner of the athlete of the first domestic UFC champion Oleg Taktarov.

Later, he went to fight with Volkov.

As an opponent, Fakhretdinova was chosen not the strongest Greek Andreas Mikhailidis, who won only one victory in the UFC with three defeats.

It is not surprising that Rinat easily coped with an opponent inferior in class, although the fight turned out to be not too bright.

Athletes spent most of it on the ground.

The Russian confidently controlled the opponent and, if possible, struck with elbows and fists.

As a result, in the final round, the Greek received a strong cut and met the siren completely bloodied.

The judges simply had no choice but to unanimously take the side of the debutant, because in terms of the number of accurate accented blows, he surpassed Mikhailidis almost three times - 45 against 18. Especially often the Gladiator hit the head - 27 against seven.

The only thing was that we failed to finish Andreas ahead of schedule, although a couple of attempts were made to choke him.

Movsar Evloev also had an extremely important fight.

He approached Dan Ige with a five-fight streak in the UFC and 13th in the featherweight rankings.

And the victory over the American, who suffered two defeats in a row and occupies the tenth line, with a high degree of probability raised him to the top 10.

The Russian took advantage of his chance perfectly.

By and large, he, like Fakhretdinov earlier, did not leave his opponent a chance.

At the same time, the athlete from the USA started the match quite actively and immediately shocked the favorite with a successful series.

Evloev quickly recovered and continued to fight in the standing position, although many expected him to be transferred to the ground as soon as possible.

And most importantly, Movsar acted very well in this component.

He broke the defense of Ige "on the floors."

Especially dangerous for Dan was a counter-knee to the jaw, after which he miraculously remained conscious.

And only closer to the break, the domestic athlete had a takedown, but Ige defended well.

The scenario for the second round was identical.

A native of Ingushetia inflicted more and more damage on the opponent and forced him to defend himself with the last of his strength.

The American, on the other hand, relied solely on counterattacks, which did not carry any particular danger.

But the final five-minute period completely passed in the struggle, but Evloev did not manage to finish the fight ahead of schedule, although he tried several times to go to the choke.

Nevertheless, the judges unanimously gave the victory to Movsar - 30:27, 30:26, 30:26.

She became his 16th in mixed martial arts and sixth in the UFC.

However, he still does not know defeat.

In the next fight, the Russian expressed a desire to meet with the sixth number Arnold Allen.