O’Malley made a sensation, Dillashaw showed a huge heart and the lightweight has a new champion! What did UFC 280 look like?

UFC 280 – event of the year. At least so far. Even before its start, the composition and quality of the fights made it impossible to see it any other way. Two title fights, many interesting fighters, Makhmud Muradov. It was something to watch. What did the gala look like? Check out all the early finishes.

Prelims

The first three fights offered the only early stoppage

Often times, many people skip the prelims card at a UFC event quietly, however now it would be a sin. Right from the start, Lina Lansberg, who once faced Lucie Pudilova, went into action to challenge Karol Rosa. The Brazilian gave a very good and quite dominant performance and scored a deserved win on points.

The second match was much more interesting for the fans. Undefeated super talent Muhammad Mokaev had an interesting challenge ahead of him when he took on Malcolm Gordon. The Russian native living in Great Britain proved his qualities and did not give his opponent a chance. He ended the match with a great armbar with less than 40 seconds left.

The next match featured Armen Petrosyan and AJ Dobson. While Petrosyan dominated the stand-up and clearly out-shot his opponent on strikes, Dobson delivered three successful takedowns. However, they were not enough for him to win and the judges awarded the win to Petrosyan.

Abubakar Nurmagomedov and Gadzhi Omargadzhiev gave the fans a great show afterwards. Great grappling, dangerous stand-up moments. Both of them threatening. However, Nurmagomedov was the better man and put on a convincing performance. Plus, it helped that Omargadzhiev was out of shape a lot earlier.

Oezdemir confirmed his decline, Muradov lost again, Belal dominated

The second half of the prelims card opened with Volkan Oezdemir’s fight with Nikita Krylov. Both fighters belong to the top ten of the welterweight division, Oezdemir was also Jiri Prochazka’s first opponent in the UFC and just since losing to him it seems like his career has gone downhill.

So it was interesting to see how he would fare with his next big challenge. The opening of the fight was great, his quick entrance didn’t last long and Krylov gradually started to turn the fight in his favor. More or less from the second half of the first round. Krylov was in great shape and scored a well deserved points win. And it certainly wasn’t boring.

The fifth prelims card duel was finally won by Makhmud Muradov. He went into the match after more than a year and after having to deal with a bunch of personal problems. His opponent was Caio Borralho. Borralho was expected to threaten mainly on the ground, Muradov in the standup.

Ironically though, Muradov showed great improvement on the ground and was able to stay in top position for the first two rounds just as long as Borralho. However, the third round was practically one-sided on the Brazilian’s part and the points win was therefore awarded to him. Muradov lost for the second time in the UFC.

A post fight brawl to finish. The fight between two great grounders didn’t even go to the ground in the end. Belal Muhammad outpointed Sean Brady in two rounds and won the fight by TKO. The only thing that worked for Brady the whole fight was his left front.

Belal was dominant the entire fight and more or less made the fight. He deserved the win as much as possible. He’s asking for a title shot. Brady has his first loss ever in addition to his 15 wins.

The main card

Three new challengers? Manon calls for a title shot, Dariush proves his quality

The main card opened with a women’s flyweight bout. No. 1 Katlyn Chookagian faced the dangerous Manon Fiorot. The first two rounds were all standing and fairly even. However, Fiorot was tougher and more accurate. But she could go into the third round thinking she was going to win.

Chookagian is also extremely experienced. She can win on points. After all, she’s won 15 of her 18 wins. Fiorot, however, picked up the pace in the third round and left nothing to chance. She also added a takedown, which certainly helped her. She got the closest win possible, winning 29-28 on all judges’ scorecards.

The black horse of the card. That was the fight between Beneil Dariush and Mateusz Gamrot. Dariush went into the fight on a great win streak as he looks to fight his way to a lightweight title fight. Gamrot went into the fight with four straight wins.

The Polish fighter was the favorite despite his inferior ranking and spent the entire fight trying to prove why that was the case. But Dariush was against it. He excelled in the standup, showed incredible defense against takedowns, then in the third round Gamrot “ate” a clean chinlock and went down. It’s hard to understand how he survived the critical moment.

Dariush, however, scored another points win and once again came a little closer to a potential title fight.

O’Malley has created a sensation!

Missmatch? That’s how Peter Yan and Sean O’Malley’s duel was rarely announced. Yan has been one of the absolute top bantamweights for a long time, while O’Malley has never fought anyone of his quality, and he’s not even in the top ten of the rankings.

But the first round showed that it won’t be easy for the Russian. The American was able to land good, hard shots. He even forced Yano to try to take the fight to the ground. On the ground, however, O’Malley was hinting at submissions, eventually getting up well. He didn’t look resigned for a moment.

On the contrary. In the second round he danced Yano, but he danced back and it can be said that it was the second round that the Russian won without a doubt. The third five minutes started nervously on both sides, but O’Malley gradually got going like a machine and started to open up Yano like a can. His combinations were almost flawless and he took care of the sensation.

Two judges saw him win 29-28, only one judge saw Yano win by the same score. The American may very well have claimed a title shot and provided one of the biggest surprises of the year at least. And certainly one of the best fights of the year.

Sterling defended his belt, Dillashaw showed a lot of heart

Aljamain Sterling was criticized after winning the belt following the disqualification of Peter Yan, but in the rematch he shut his critics’ mouths and managed to beat the Russian fighter on points after a great performance. Now he had another challenge ahead of him.

He was challenged by former champion and doping sinner TJ Dillashaw. It was going to be another tough fight, a big test. However, Sterling was confident and when the fight was called, he waited for nothing and immediately pounced on his opponent.

Dillashaw quickly found himself under Sterling and to make matters worse, he blew out his shoulder in the fall. Naturally, the reigning champion took advantage of this and destroyed his challenger as much as he could. He literally bullied him.

We waited to see what would happen next. Dillashaw’s shoulder was checked by a doctor. The shoulder was returned to its original condition. And with that, round two began. But there the challenger threw his shoulder out again and Sterling did his best to end the fight as quickly as possible. And he did, winning by TKO.

It’s worth noting that Dillashaw had accounted for the dislocated shoulder and reportedly spoke to the referee before the fight to not stop the fight in this case. And he listened. So while the former champion had to accept the loss, he showed tremendous heart.

Makhachev the new champion!

Charles Oliveira had another tough battle ahead of him. This time he was challenged by Islam Makhachev. Underestimated by the public, however, the bookmakers and his coach Khabib Nurmagomedov believed in him. He officially went into the fight as the favorite.

It should be noted that this was Makhachev’s first fight with an opponent from the top five of the lightweight rankings. And that was right from a former champion who lost his title just because he didn’t make weight.

Oliveira was currently taken as the best lightweight fighter, but in the first round of the fight Makhachev showed him that he would be more than competitive. Indeed, it was in the first round that he showed tremendous dominance, getting the Brazilian underneath him and allowing him virtually nothing.

In the second round, Oliveira showed good takedown defense and made the Russian fight in the standup. But you could tell that Makhachev had earned his respect. Unusually, the Brazilian wasn’t the one creating the pressure. On the contrary. He was just waiting. And Khabib’s charge took advantage of that to great effect.

He took Oliveira down in the stand-up, where he applied a choke and forced him to tap out. The lightweight division has a new champion and his first challenger will likely be featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski.

Source: UFC, Twitter