He may have been on the precipice of defeat a number of times, but Dagestani and debuting UFC fighter Omari Akhmedov won a positively wild, back-and-forth fight at UFC Fight Night 32 in Goiania, Brazil on Saturday against Thiago Perpertuo.
It wasn’t as if Akhmedov didn’t have his moments, but they often came on the heels of nearly being stopped. Perpetuo landed a number of heavy strikes that either had Akhmedov wobbly or shooting in to change the dimension of the fight. While the Dagestani was able to secure a few takedowns and even came close on a rear-naked choke attempt, the fight felt like Perpetuo’s to win.
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The Brazilian landed the heavier of the strikes early and often.
The end came, however, just as it appeared Akhmedov was in trouble. Akhmedov was back peddling and not sure of foot as Perpetuo was chasing him down. The Dagestani clipped the pursuing fighter, which almost stopped him dead in his tracks. That allowed Akhmedov to capitalize and landed another shot that sent Perpetuo crumpling to mat unconscious.
The end, a win by knockout, came officially at 3:31 of round 1.
“I was waiting for this since I was a child,” Akhmedov said after the fight. “Now I get to go home and see my family after a long camp. We started trading punches and then I don’t remember much of what happened. I got to get some rest while we were wrestling, had some time to recover, and he jumped to finish too fast. At that point I caught him.”
Akhmedov wins his UFC debut and ups his record to 11-0. Perpetuo drops to 9-2.