Russian veteran Alexander Yakovlev secured his first win in well over two years earlier today (Sat., April 20, 2019) at UFC on ESPN+ 7 live on ESPN+ from inside Yubileyny Sports Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia, when he submitted rising lightweight prospect Alex da Silva via second-round modified guillotine choke.
Despite absorbing some damage to the body and getting taken down in the first round, Yakovlev was able to regain control in the second. After da Silva locked up a standing guillotine choke attempt along the cage Yakovlev picked him up and slammed him on his back to break the squeeze. From there, the Russian worked from a sprawl position to get a hold of da Silva’s neck and secure a unique guillotine choke that forced the Brazilian to tap.
Check out the video highlights above courtesy of UFC/ESPN.
With this performance, Yakovlev reenters the UFC win column after dropping a submission loss to Zak Cummings back in November 2016. The 34-year-old Russian is no spring chicken at this point in his career but he looked on point tonight against a fighter who was previously 20-1 with 20 finishes. Pretty impressive stuff from “Thunder of the North.”
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