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Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) staged UFC Vegas 9 last night (Sat., Sept. 5, 2020) inside UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada. In the main event, Alistair Overeem knocked out Augusto Sakai in the fifth and final round (see it). In the co-headlining act, Ovince Saint Preux picked up a huge win over Alonzo Menifield, knocking him out with one well-placed punch.
Biggest Winner: Alistair Overeem
Overeem picked up his second straight win last night after knocking out Sakai in the final round of their main event match up. In doing so, “The Reem” earned his fourth win in his last five fights, which could’ve been five in a row had it not been for Jairzinho Rozenstruik’s Hail Mary knockout win. The long-time veteran wants to make one final run at the division strap before he calls it a career, and handing Sakai his first-ever knockout defeat is a good way to keep his momentum going. The grizzled veteran has shown time and again that after nearly 20 years of combat sports he’s still performing at a high level, which is a super-rare thing these days. One more win should earn “The Demolition Man” another title shot.
Runner Up: Brian Kelleher
Let’s give “Boom” some love here as he once again showed last night that he has no problems adjusting on the fly and taking on any and all comers. Kelleher was supposed to face Ricky Simon before he was bounced from the match up because of COIVD-19. Kelleher was then pegged to face late replacement, Kevin Natividad, though he was eventually pulled from the event for undisclosed reasons the day of the fight. Ray Rodriguez stepped in to fill the void and to Kelleher’s credit, he agreed to take on his third scheduled opponent in a week with no issues. In turn, “Boom” submitted Rodriguez in just 39 seconds, earning him a nice $50,000 bonus check. He also earned even more brownie points with the promotion by not saying “no” to all the changes in opponents. He also improved to 3-1 over his last four.
Biggest Loser: Zelim Imadaev
After starting off his career a perfect 8-0, Imadaev hit a bit of a rough patch, dropping two straight fights inside the Octagon coming into UFC Vegas 9. He was looking to right his ship against Michel Pereira, but he only ended up digging himself in a deeper hole. Indeed, Pereira submitted Imadaev in the third and final round with a rear-naked choke, handing him his third straight defeat. And it’s a very bad time to have such a horrid run, as the promotion has been very open about the fact that it is planning on trimming some fat off of its roster in the coming months. And someone on a three-fight losing streak should be very worried.
For complete UFC Vegas 9 results and coverage click here.