Craig Jones continued his dominating ways earlier today (Sat., April 20, 2024) at Karate Combat 45 from Dubai, U.A.E., as the grappling ace stopped rising Ultimate Fighter Championship (UFC) welterweight fighter, Rinat Fakhretdinov, with a nasty triangle choke.
For those who are not familiar with Jones, the 32-year-old jiu-jitsu black belt is a two-time Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) silver medalist and currently trains some of the best MMA fighters in the world. This includes former UFC champions Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski. In other words, Jones is one of the most recognizable grappling experts in the sport today.
On Saturday, the talented submission specialist was trying to follow up his flying off-the-wall triangle from earlier in the year with something even better. He may not have accomplished a better stoppage on paper, but Jones’ performance at Karate Combat 45 was still super impressive.
Jones was matched up against Fakhretdinov, who is currently 3-0-1 as a member of UFC’s jam-packed welterweight division. Fakhretdinov has done most of his damage inside of the Octagon by taking opponents down and suffocation them with a strong top game. Unfortunately for the promising UFC contender, he was the one playing defense against Jones on Saturday.
The final moments of the fight came when Jones caught Fakhretdinov in a nasty triangle choke. Fakhretdinov appeared to go unconscious as Jones grabbed the referee’s attention. The referee briefly checked on Fakhretdinov as Jones loosened his hold. The UFC fighter came to only to have Jones put him to sleep again once the action continued. It was bizarre to say the least, but another dominant outing by Jones.
Check it out in the above video player.
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