Without titles: how Teixeira lost to Hill and ended his career, and Figueredo lost to Moreno due to an eye injury

The next numbered UFC tournament could not but attract the attention of Russian fans.

And it was not only the return of Shamil Abdurahimov to the octagon after a ten-month absence.

In the duel between Glover Teixeira and Jamal Hill, the light heavyweight title was played out, which for a month could have belonged to Magomed Ankalaev, but remained vacant by the will of the judges.

It was impossible to miss the fourth meeting between Deiveson Figueredo and Brandon Moreno, who over the past years have personified the lightest division of the Absolute Fighting Championship.

The fight with the participation of Abdurakhimov took place within the framework of the preliminary card and turned out exactly as one had to expect.

Recently, the Russian's career has been going downhill: in a little over three years, he entered the cage three times and each time unsuccessfully.

A series of early losses cost him a place in the top 10 heavyweight rankings and turned him into a gatekeeper used to promote young and promising opponents.

This is exactly how Zhailton Almeida, once a member of Dana White's Contender Series, and now one of the most promising representatives of his category, seemed to be.

He began to confirm this status from the very first minutes of the duel with Abdurahimov.

Almeida immediately threw himself at the opponent's feet and hit him on the ground with a powerful amplitude throw, and when he managed to get up, he laid him on the canvas again.

Until the end of the round, the Brazilian beat the Russian on the ground and in total struck 25 blows, 14 of which were significant.

Shamil, on the other hand, managed to answer with only three accurate hits, and spent most of the time in a dead defense.

During the first five-minute period, Abdurahimov received serious damage and hardly reached his corner after it ended.

The coaches probably tried to advise him something, but in the second segment everything was repeated up to a comma.

One of the most promising heavyweight grapplers again made a takedown with incredible ease and did not let go of his counterpart.

At a certain moment, Shamil stopped defending himself from Zhailton's constant attacks and gave the referee a reason to intervene.

The Russian suffered a fourth defeat in a row and may lose his place in the top 15 category as early as next week.

The second most important fight of the evening ended obviously not the way the fans who filled the arenas in Rio de Janeiro expected.

The fourth battle between Figueredo and Moreno was supposed to be the crown of their many years of confrontation and answer the question of who is the strongest flyweight at the moment.

But in the third segment, an episode occurred that crossed out the hopes of the fans to see a bright spectacle.

By this point, Moreno was most likely leading 2-0 in rounds.

The owner of the temporary belt dominated both in the standing position and on the ground, where he laid down the absolute champion three times.

At the same time, the superiority in significant strikes was also colossal.

In the asset of the Mexican, there were 34 of them at once, while the Brazilian answered only ten.

Yes, in the starting segment, he almost caught the enemy on a heel-hook, and in the second he tried to execute the guillotine, but did not succeed.

In the third round, Moreno continued to go forward, and in the second minute he struck a fatal left hook, after which he touched the opponent's head with his right hand.

Figueredo considered that there was a poke in the eye, and began to appeal to the referee, but Herb Dean did not react.

Daveson was distracted, missed another pass to the legs and spent the rest of the time on his back, taking solid damage.

As a result, the Brazilian's right eye "floated", and a dissection formed under it.

In this state, he had no right to continue the fight, and all the efforts of the seconds to bring him into the "proper form" were in vain.

Dean immediately called a doctor into the cage and, after consulting with him, announced the stoppage of the fight.

Moreno was awarded the victory by technical knockout and gave away the trophy.

Local fans reacted extremely negatively to this.

Like Figueredo, they were sure that it was not an exact hit that led to problems with the eye, but a forbidden technique, which is why they decided to take out all the anger on the two-time champion.

During the announcement of the winner, he was booed, and when he went to the sub-tribune, they threw garbage at him.

True, this did not affect the mood of Moreno.

He again found himself at the top of the division and along the way got rid of his sworn opponent.

As Daveson himself announced, he will hold the next fight in the lightest category.

In the battle between Teixeira and Hill, the main intrigue was whether the American would be able to compete with one of the strongest grapplers in the history of the championship and protect himself from passes to the legs.

If Jamal had to have a solid advantage in the standing position, then in the stalls he could hardly compete.

His previous encounter with a Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist ended in a horrific arm fracture and TKO defeat.

And Glover could well repeat the success of Paul Craig.

Over the course of one and a half rounds, Hill got almost everything.

He kept Teixeira at a distance, interrupted in the stance and did not allow him to put him on the ground.

In the first five-minute period, the American almost four times surpassed the Brazilian in significant blows (46:12), and in the second he almost knocked him down.

A pair of left hi-kicks hit the ex-champion exactly in the head, but he miraculously recovered and began to answer.

A left hook almost knocked the ground out from under Jamal's feet, opened a cut under his right eye and provided Glover with a takedown.

The veteran used the opportunity and laid down his opponent on canvas for the first time.

However, Hill defended himself, recovered in no time and continued to dominate the octagon.

Over the next two rounds, Teixeira suffered a real beating.

The Brazilian was still knocked down, missed more than a hundred significant blows, and a couple of deep cuts formed on his face.

One of them looked so terrifying that it almost forced the doctor to stop the duel.

But Glover still went to the final round and gave the fight to Hill.

By this point, he had already missed more than 220 significant punches, and subsequently received a dozen more.

However, the legendary athlete did not give up.

With the last of his strength, he rushed forward, carried out a takedown and even made his way to a full mount, but the opponent miraculously got out of a difficult situation.

After that, there was no hope for a comeback.

The American endured until the gong and cried on the shoulder of the second even before the announcement of the official decision.

The judges didn't have any surprises.

All three sided with Jamal (50:44) and named him the new UFC light heavyweight champion.

As it turned out, the home tournament was the last in their careers for two Brazilian legends at once.

A few hours ago, Mauricio Rua, the ex-champion in the division up to 93 kilograms, announced his intention to hang up his gloves on a nail, who suffered a crushing defeat from the Ukrainian Igor Lost.

And after the duel with Hill, Teixeira made a similar decision.

As the Brazilian admitted, he can no longer perform at this level and intends to focus on working with the current belt holder in the middle division, Alex Pereira.