It was a night of quick finishes and high-profile submissions on Fight Island. After a couple of sluggish main events and main cards this past week, the UFC more than made up for it tonight with some dominant and decisive performances!
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After two decisions to start the card, the next 3 of 5 fights on the undercard would end in the opening round by submission or knockout. Amir Albazi submitted Malcom Gordon with a triangle choke at 4:42.
Joel Alvarez improved his record to 17-2 with a guillotine choke over Joe Duffy at 2:25. Finally, Roman Dolidze finished the undercard by knocking out Khadis Ibagimov with a beautiful TKO of punches and knees.
Ariane Lipski put the UFC Womens Flyweight Division on notice tonight with a textbook kneebar victory over Luana Carolina at just 1:28 of the opening round. Lipski is now 13 – 5 but appears to haver her best days ahead of her.
A lot of people were excited about the return of Kelvin Gastelum, but Jack Hermansson made sure to end that party early as well. Hermansson made Gastelum tap to a heel hook at just 1:18 of the fight.
For Hemansson, he now improves to 21-5 and 5-1 in his last six. As for Gastelum, he has hit a serious skid with his third straight loss. He hasn’t won a fight in over two years.
Finally, in a night that saw a total of 6 first round finishes, sandwiched in between 6 decisions, it would only make sense that the Main Event Title Fight between Deiveson Figueiredo and Joseph Benavidez.
As you all recall, the last time they fought for a strap only Benavidez could win it and he didn’t. This time, Figueiredo made weight and ended all debate with a rear naked choke at 4:48 of the opening round.
The argument is over, and now sportswriters everywhere better figure out how to spell Deiveson Figueiredo for a very long time as he holds the gold in the UFC Flyweight Division. For Benavidez, he talked a lot of smack before this fight but now falls to 0-5 in title fights in his career. This will more than likely be the last one he ever gets. Congrats to the new champ who is now 19-1.