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ESPN app. The
Ultimate Fighting Championship on Tuesday invited a few violent
men to join its ranks, as Aliaskhab
Khizriev, Tafon
Nchukwi, Phil Hawes
and Drako
Rodriguez were awarded contracts on
Week 6 of
Dana White’s Contender Series at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Khizriev (13-0) dispatched former Heat champion
Henrique
Shiguemoto with a rear-naked choke in the first round of their
brief middleweight pairing. Shiguemoto (13-4-1) conceded defeat 50
seconds into Round 1, the victim in the second-fastest submission
in DWCS history.
After a brief exchange on the feet, Khizriev scrambled into the
rear waistlock position, executed a takedown and almost immediately
transitioned to the back. He set his hooks, flattened out his counterpart and
cinched the choke for the sixth sub-minute stoppage of his
career.
The loss was Shiguemoto’s first since Sept. 21, 2013.
Nchukwi Kick KOs Matavao
Tafon
Nchukwi kept his perfect professional record intact and did so
in terrifying fashion, as he knocked out former
Alaska Fighting Championship titleholder Al Matavao
in the second round of their light heavyweight encounter. An
unconscious Matavao (8-3) bounced off the canvas 2:01 into Round 2
and remained down for several unsettling minutes.
Nchukwi (4-0) held all the physical advantages, including four
inches in height and 9.5 inches in reach. Matavao spent much of his
time moving away from the devastating weaponry being thrown at him
and landed a few combinations, but he lacked the oomph necessary to
give the monster standing across from him real pause. Nchukwi caught him circling and ducking in the
second round and connected with the fight-ending kick in a gruesome
scene.
The 25-year-old Nchukwi has finished all four of his opponents
inside two rounds.
Resurgent Hawes Fells Bestaev
Sanford MMA export Phil Hawes
wiped out Khadzhimurat
Bestaev with punches in the first round of their middleweight
clash. Operating out of the
American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, California, Bestaev
(10-4) bowed out 1:18 into Round 1.
Hawes (8-2) chewed up the lead leg with kicks, ducked a right hook
and countered with one of his own. The concussive blow connected flush on the 6-foot-6
Bestaev’s jaw, dropping him where he stood. Hawes followed up
with punches and hammerfists to draw the curtain.
The 31-year-old Hawes will ride a four-fight winning streak into
his next assignment.
Rodriguez Triangle Tranquilizes Martinez
Drako
Rodriguez choked
Fury Fighting Championship titleholder Leomana
Martinez unconscious with a triangle in the first round of
their bantamweight confrontation. Martinez (6-2) lost his grip on
reality 2:22 into Round 1, his five-fight winning streak at an
end.
Rodriguez (7-1) caught a kick, tripped the
Metro Fight Club export to the floor and denied an attempted
armbar and omoplata, then transitioned to the triangle. Martinez
fought to extricate himself—he threatened a slam at one point—from
the choke but only wandered deeper into danger. He soon
went limp, leaving referee Marc Goddard
to wave it off.
The 24-year-old Rodriguez has rattled off three straight victories
since suffering his only professional setback to Tony
Gravely in the fifth round of a King of the Cage title fight in
2018.
Unbeaten Blackledge Downs Church
Repeated takedowns, stellar clinch work and crisp combination
punching carried undefeated
Syndicate MMA prospect Sherrard
Blackledge to a unanimous decision over Cameron
Church in a three-round lightweight battle. All three judges
sided with Blackledge (5-0): 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28.
Church (4-1) made it difficult. He hammered away at Blackledge with
leg kicks, especially early, and tried to overwhelm him with
pressure. Those efforts went unrewarded. Blackledge piled up points
with a variety of strikes—they included a spinning back elbow to
the chin in the final stanza—and delivered takedowns in all three
rounds, consolidating them with positional control and
ground-and-pound.
