Fight
Club Rush ventured from Vasteras for its debut in Stockholm,
and the event featured plenty of firepower.
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In the FCR
13 main event, rising star Bernardo
Sopai stopped Karlen
Minasian with a head kick to capture the promotion’s
bantamweight strap, which was recently vacated by Felipe
Lima. Sopai took the fight to the ground early, and outside of
a couple surprising hip tosses from Minasian in the clinch, the
Albanian controlled the first frame.
It was a tentative second round until Sopai turned up the pace with
punches and landed a lightning fast right hand that the Ukrainian
acknowledged. The
Allstars Training Center fighter moved forward and launched a
powerful right head kick that sent the Orebro Fight Gym product
crumbling to the ground, where the referee immediately stepped in
to call an end to the bout at 59 seconds of Round 2.
“I was patient, I know he was hurt.” said Sopai about the finishing
sequence. “I just followed my gameplan.”
Touma Dominates Husseini
In the co-main event, Jonny Touma
was supposed to rematch Zoran Milic
for FCR flyweight title, but injury prevented the bout from
happening. Instead it was Safiullah
Husseini that stepped in on short notice to fill the slot in a
non-title affair.
Touma grabbed a guillotine early and looked like he was going to
end the night quickly, but Husseini stayed calm and was able to
posture out of the squeeze. Husseini attacked often with kicks, but
Touma made him pay for it by taking him down and sealing the deal
with a rear-naked choke at 4:52 of the opening period.
“I felt relaxed.” said Touma, who then called for a title shot:
“Let’s go.”
In other action, Khamzat
Chimaev training partner Bilal
Tipsaev put on a 15-minute mixed martial arts masterclass
against Glenn
McVeigh en route to a unanimous decision; Wasiu Adeshina upset
Sakhi
Qambari with a second-round TKO at the 4:02 mark; Nabbe Malki
won his professional debut against Taylan Isik
via Round 1 TKO at 2:14; Djaba
Murtazaliev hit a Round 1 rear-naked choke against Raymond
Johansson and Moein
Ahmadi tapped Abdallah
Habib with a first-round RNC.