Finishing off an injured opponent and a premature stop: how Ankalaev and Pavlovich won by knockouts at UFC 277

The UFC 277 tournament in Dallas promised to be not only memorable, but also extremely important in terms of the future of four divisions at once.

Julianne Peña and Amanda Nunez were determined to be the bantamweight queen, Brandon Moreno and Kai Cara-France fought for the interim flyweight title, and Magomed Ankalaev and Sergey Pavlovich were about to take another step towards the top of the two most prestigious categories.

Moreover, the first of the Russians had a good chance of becoming the first contender for the belt.

In June, Dana White personally awarded their fight with Anthony Smith the status of an eliminator, although since then the balance of power has changed significantly.

One of the main questions was whether Ankalaev would decide to abandon his pragmatic fighting model and take the risk of hacking to death with Smith in the stance.

After all, there were all the prerequisites for this.

Unlike Thiago Santos and Volkan Ozdemir, the American could not be called a bright drummer, which was confirmed by his track record.

The last time he won by knockout four years ago, when he scored on the ground of former champion Mauricio Rua, although after that he entered the octagon eight more times.

However, Magomed decided not to retreat from his tactics and during the first round he practically did not force the course of the fight.

Ankalaev worked from a distance and tried to get a high-kick, but he couldn't hit it with emphasis.

A couple of times he hit the block, hooked the opponent on the body, but no more.

Smith defended pretty well, pressed and used the jab in a timely manner, slowing down the pace.

In general, in the opening, the fighters showed too much respect for each other and practically did not enter into exchanges.

And the blame for this rather lies with Magomed, who acted as the second number.

But if Smith managed to almost completely block Ankalaev's access to the upper and middle floors, he could not protect himself from hits on the lower one.

In the first round alone, Magomed performed eight low kicks, and in the next round he added one more.

As a result, immediately 17% of the total number of his blows fell on the legs, which became a record figure for him in the UFC.

And it quickly paid off.

Before the second round, Smith struggled to his corner and informed his cornermen of problems with his left ankle.

They hurried to put ice on the damaged area, but this did not greatly improve the condition of the American.

From his movements, it became clear that the injury was serious, and a desperate attempt to transfer the Russian to the ground was another confirmation.

But to fight with Ankalaev on one leg was beyond the power of Smith.

The Russian quite easily defended himself from the takedown, he himself was on top and unleashed a flurry of blows on Anthony.

In the absence of the ability to stand firmly on his feet, he could not oppose anything and only suffered a beating until the referee intervened.

Ankalaev won the ninth fight in a row, thanks to which he bypassed Lyoto Machida and moved into second place in UFC light heavyweight history in terms of the duration of the winning streak.

According to this indicator, he is second only to Jon Jones, who won 13 fights in a row between 2010 and 2016.

“Of course, this fight was very important to me.

We prepared hard.

He wanted to put up a fight.

We showed who the warrior is here ... We only go forward ... No, I didn’t know (about Smith’s problems with his leg. -

).

But who broke it?

He hit me… How many more times do I have to win to fight for the belt?”

Ankalaev said.

If Jacob Montalvo gave Smith enough chances to recover and continue the battle with Ankalaev, then the most experienced Dan Miragliotta did not work out the duel between Sergey Pavlovich and Derrick Lewis in the best way.

In total, the battle between the heavyweight stars lasted only 55 seconds and ended after the first worthwhile exchange.

The record holder for the number of knockouts in UFC history tried to force the course of the fight and arrange a cabin, but he himself missed several powerful hooks and ended up in a state of groggy.

The Russian rushed forward and knocked the enemy down with a series of hits for a second.

The American, who collapsed onto the canvas, got up almost instantly, but it was too late.

In an attempt to save the health of the athlete, the referee hastened to intervene and hurried a little.

In general, this fight was reminiscent of the first fight between Ankalaev and Kutselaba.

Then Kevin McDonald also showed excessive concern for the health of the Moldovan and removed him even before he received serious damage.

The Russian, who received a portion of negativity from the audience, also suffered from this decision.

Pavlovich also failed to avoid this, in addition to provoking the fans with a bright celebration.

“This could happen throughout all three rounds ... I did my job beautifully, I’m happy with everything,” the heavyweight admitted.

Pavlovich scored a fourth stoppage victory and, for his part, did everything possible to break into the top 10 heavyweight rankings, but just like that, their confrontation with Lewis may not end.

The matchmakers are quite capable of treating him in the same way as they did with Ankalaev then, and forcing him to have an immediate revenge with the American.

In the second most important fight of the evening, it was decided whether the fans would see the fourth duel between one of the brightest lightweights of recent years - Brandon Moreno and Deiveson Figueredo.

In January, the Mexican lost to the Brazilian and was forced to fight again for the title of first contender.

Kai Kara-France, a bright kickboxer, who knocked out Rogerio Bontorin and Cody Gabrandt in turn, and also inflicted the first defeat on Askar Askarov, tried to prevent him from meeting his eternal opponent again.

He was close to victory this time as well.

In the third round, the New Zealander delivered a series of powerful blows to Moreno, who was on his knees, and then hit the standing position several times, a large cut opened under the right eye on the face of the ex-champion.

The situation seemed extremely difficult, but at that moment the Mexican succeeded in a magnificent middle kick to the liver.

Cara France collapsed to the floor and allowed the opponent to finish off.

As for the main fight of the evening, the intrigue was whether Nunes learned from his discouraging defeat and whether he could pick up the keys to Peña.

In December, the American shocked the world of mixed martial arts and inflicted the first defeat on the two-division champion since September 2014, when she was knocked out by then-rising MMA star Cat Zingano.

After that, Amanda won 12 times in a row and deserved to be considered one of the greatest female fighters in history.

And this time she confirmed the title.

Throughout the fight, Nunes interrupted Peña, and in the second round she taught a real master class in working in the rack.

The Brazilian moved superbly, changed stances in a timely manner and was simply magnificent on counterattacks, thanks to which she sent the American knocked down three times.

To Peña's credit, it is worth noting that she continued to go forward, no matter what, but her skills were clearly not enough to win.

Starting from the third segment, this became especially noticeable.

Nunes transferred her opponent to the canvas six times and spent a total of 11 minutes 17 seconds on top, bombarding the head of the champion with heavy blows.

Julianna's face was filled with blood, but even in this situation she did not give up and fought to the last.

Twice she almost forced her rival to surrender from home payment, several times she threatened her with a barn.

And in the end, she herself demonstrated an incredible will to win and got out of the chokehold.

Nunes still won by unanimous decision, and even with a devastating score (50:45, 50:44, 50:43), but Peña made an excellent bid for revenge.

Over the past seven years, no one has offered such resistance to the Brazilian, with the exception of Valentina Shevchenko.

Their paths crossed twice in the octagon, but in both cases, Amanda prevailed.