The UFC tournament offered plenty of breathtaking fights and bloodbaths! Spanish Matador asked for a title shot, celebrated backstage with footballer Ramos

The UFC has once again shown that it’s not just about numbered tournaments. Things were happening at the crazy Fight Night gala! The crowd got to see plenty of impressive finishes and an unfortunate eye injury. Then in the main event of the night, Spanish Matador Ilia Topuria claimed a title shot.

The main card opened with an attractive middleweight duel

The main card opened with a welterweight bout that famously wowed the fans in attendance at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, USA. It featured the division’s No. 13 contender Brendan Allen (21-5) and Brazilian Bruno Silva (23-8).

Silva, who certainly wanted to keep the fight standing against the American groundskeeper, rode a seven-fight winning streak before losing to Alex Pereira. But he was able to last all three rounds with the former division champion at the time and had to be decided by points judges.

It was Allen who was looking to get his fifth straight win in the UFC and he managed to do it in a really impressive fashion. Midway through the first round, what had been a quiet fight up to that point turned into a stand-up shootout, with the Brazilian looking the more accurate fighter.

But Allen took his opponent by surprise and landed a punch that sent Silva to the floor. From there, the American was feeling like a fish out of water and ended the fight on a Rear Naked Choke.

The first Ugandan in the UFC came out with a brutal KO

Perhaps the most attractive fight of the card offered a clash of the young generations within the featherweight division. Brazil’s Gabriel Santos was featured in only his second fight against the first Ugandan fighter in the UFC, David Onamo.

The fight was crazy paced from the first seconds and the KO was felt in every punch here. It’s a wonder the duel between two agile fighters made it to the second round. In the first one they both showed a really attractive fight full of hard exchanges.

The second round continued aggressively and Santos threatened especially in the stand-up with an excellent back. But Onama was wringing his opponent on the ground and then took advantage of his opponent’s inattention midway through the round to send him into dreamland with a brutal uppercut. A really mature performance worthy of some bonus work from Dana White.

Blood coming out of his eye? The heavyweight bout ended with an unfortunate eye poke!

The fans were certainly looking forward to the only heavyweight bout on the card. Fights between these fighters always offer an attractive spectacle, with KO’s hanging in the air at any moment.

Justin Tafa, who has put on a show in his last two fights with quick first round knockouts, pays the price for a fighter who doesn’t like to leave his fights to the scoring judges. He has won all of his wins before the limit, as has his opponent Austen Lane.

But the expected fight ended in the worst possible way. For after the opening few exchanges, Lane hit Tafa’s eyes with his fingers in such a way that the New Zealander could not continue the fight. The blood flowing from his right eye proves that this was definitely not a simulation of an injury.

The only women’s fight brought broken noses and more bloody carnage

The only women’s bout on the card brought a flyweight duel between Maycee Barber and Amanda Ribas. Ribas was the favourite in the duel and she tried to prove it from the opening seconds of the bout, pressuring her opponent and holding the centre of the octagon.

Barber, who was the number eleven ranked fighter in the division, was looking to get past her opponent into the top ten of the flyweight division with a win. Although she pulled the short end of the rope early in the fight, it was Barber who took the end of the round for herself, breaking her opponent’s nose with a hard ground and pound.

In the second act, the two fighters continued to slug it out and right from the loss of the round, Ribas broke her opponent’s nose in return. The bloodbath continued throughout the round. Towards the end of the round, Barber caught Ribas with a crazy head kick that rocked the Brazilian favorite.

More hard punches that sent Ribas to the ground were then accompanied by elbows, after which the referee preferred to stop the fight. The crowd was thus treated to another crazy brawl and both fighters received huge applause from the crowd after the fight.

In the main event, Spain’s Matador demolished the featherweight top five to claim the title

The main event featured an interesting spectacle between the number five and number nine featherweight division. Josh Emmett is one of the veterans of the UFC and even got a title shot this past February. However, Mexican Yair Rodriguez took the interim division title for himself and will face champion Volkanovski for the rightful belt in July.

Then in yesterday’s fight he had a no less difficult task in the form of Georgian-Spanish Matador. Ilia Topuria has not known the bitterness of defeat in his professional career so far and has long been touting an assault on the featherweight title.

Then in the fight itself, he put on a mature performance that definitely showed he is a serious contender in the title carousel. From the very first seconds of the match, Topuria looked like a predator hunting his prey.

While Emmett looked active in the match, Topuria put on an icy calm performance, punishing every attack of his opponent with brutal counters. Emmett really showed incredible resilience in the match. He wasn’t even close to quitting in the fourth round, but in the end he endured five full rounds of beatings from his opponent and was indistinguishable when the fight was over.

Topuria made a loud claim for a title shot with such a comprehensive performance and also challenged the champion Volkanovski in an interview with Daniel Cormier. Then, backstage, he celebrated the momentous victory with soccer turf legend Sergio Ramos, who watched the crazy tournament with his wife Rubio Pilar.

Source: UFC, Premier Sport 1, Twitter – MMA Team, Chamatkar Sandhu, Scottishproblem, Spinnin Backfist, FireMMAVid and Combat Sports Today