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Another Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event is in the books, as UFC Fight Night 163 went down last night (Sat., Nov. 9, 2019) from inside inside CSKA Arena in Moscow, Russia, featuring a featherweight bout that saw Zabit Magomedsharipov outlast Calvin Kattar in a back-and-forth main event (highlights).
In the co-headlining act, Alexander Volkov picked apart a very game Greg Hardy, who went the distance with the towering Russian in Heavyweight action, ultimately losing on all of the judges scorecards (recap).
Biggest Winner: Zabit Magomedsharipov
After taking out Kattar, Zabit has now won 14 straight fights, including his first six bouts inside the Octagon. Afterward, “Zabeast” called for the winner of the upcoming title fight between 145-pound champion, Max Holloway, and No. 1 contender, Alex Volkanovski, set to go down in a few weeks at UFC 245 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ranked No. 5, Zabit should climb a few spots in the rankings, and should overtake the likes of Frankie Edgar and Jose Aldo. After all, it’s all about “what have you done for me lately” that matters, and Zabit has been putting in work. That leaves Brian Ortega in front of Magomedsharipov, and “T-City” already came up short in his title fight, and is tied up to face Chan Sung Jung pretty soon. It’s a no-brainer that Zabit gets the winner of Max vs Volkanovski.
Runner Up: David Zawada
Coming into his fight against Abubakar Nurmagoemdov, David had all the pressure in the world on him. Not only was he facing a Nurmagomedov, a name which instills fear on many, but he was coming in with two straight defeats. And he knew very well that a third straight losses would’ve likely meant his time with UFC was over. But, Zawada pulled off a pretty big upset after weathering Nurmagomedov’s ground game in the first round, sinking in an air-tight triangle choke to give him his first win in over a year and a half. On top of that, he earned himself a cool $50,000 in post-fight bonus cash and another couple of fights inside the Octagon.
Biggest Loser: Abubakar Nurmagomedov
Coming into his UFC debut, Abubakar was expected to deliver and wow fight fans given his connection to current Lightweight king, Khabib Nurmagoemdov. Fair or not, that’s what comes with being related to and training with the most dominant fighter at 155 pounds, ever. That said, Nurmagomedov was coming in winning seven of his last nine, so his body of work did speak for itself.
Unfortunately, he laid an egg in the biggest fight of his career, tapping to a triangle choke from David Zawada in the very first round. A tap many feel was a bit too quick, Conor McGregor included. Now, Abubakar will have to go back to the drawing board and hope his sophomore effort goes a bit better. And believe it or not, he’ll go into that fight with even more pressure than he did in his UFC debut.
For complete UFC Moscow results and coverage click here.