UFC Saudi Arabia went down this past weekend (Sat., June 22, 2024) inside Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, leaving several fighters feeling the post-fight blues. Among them was Antonio Trocoli, who was knocked out by by Shara Magomedov in the third and final round of their Middleweight fight (see it again here).
And Sergei Pavlovich, who suffered his second straight defeat (and possibly more) after coming up short against former training partner, Alexander Volkov, in the co-main event of the evening. But, which fighter is suffering from the worst post-fight hangover, now a few days removed from the show?
Originally scheduled to face Antonio Trocoli last weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada, Aliskerov was given a huge opportunity to fill the void left behind by Khamzat Chimaev against Robert Whittaker, headlining the promotion’s first-ever event in Saudi Arabia. It was a low-risk, high-reward type of situation because he was coming in as slight favorite over his unranked foe, and a loss wouldn’t affect his stock too much, while a win would’ve him shot him up the division like a rocket.
Unfortunately for Aliskerov, he wasn’t given much room to operate by the much more experience former champion, as “The Reaper” put the pedal to the metal and absolutely rocked the Russian brawler with a nasty uppercut early that put him out for the count just two minutes into the fight.
Fuck Sean Strickland gettin the winner of Izzy vs Dricus
Give me Bobby mf Knuckles over a Strickland iCarly fight any day of the week#UFCSaudiArabia pic.twitter.com/vVzU7JtpWq
— DJ MurkCity (@myrksitymma) June 22, 2024
While most expected Whittaker to win, a quick finish wasn’t what Aliskerov had in mind. Still, he has no regrets for stepping in on short notice to take on one of the absolute best fighters in the sport.
“Alhamdulilla, no excuses — I don’t regret anything,” he said on X. “It was a big experience against one of the best in the sport. I’m young, I’ll work on my mistakes , learn and get back into business soon. Thank to everyone for support messages.”
The loss was Aliskerov’s first in five years, losing to — coincidentally enough — Khamzat Chimaev in the first round back in April 2019 (via vicious uppercut, too!). The loss snapped his seven-fight win streak, but it doesn’t hurt his stock one bit. He stepped up to the plate, and while he didn’t deliver he did earn some points with Dana White and Co., who will remember the solid he did for the company down the road.
In this sport, opportunity rarely knocks and when it does, it’s typically in the fighters best interest to answer it because it may not come again. He rolled the dice and it came up craps, but in doing so, he got some experience headlining a major event against a former champion.
He will learn from this and come back stronger.
As far as what could realistically be next for him, why not book him against the aforementioned Trocoli again? Both men had a change of plans, both had to make the long trip to Saudi Arabia to face new opponents, and both came up brutally short. Give them some time to recover and have them hook ‘em up before the year is over.
For complete UFC Saudi Arabia results, coverage and highlights, click HERE.