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Khamzat Chimaev managed to pull off a victory against the former welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman, in a co-main event in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.
Chimaev took home two scores of 29-27 for early domination of Usman on the canvas, while the third judge scored it a 28-28 draw.
Usman was a last minute replacement for Paulo Costa, who was forced to withdraw due to a shoulder injury. However, despite the limited preparation time, Usman displayed a show of determination and resilience against one of the sport’s most fearsome fighters.
In the opening moments of the fight, Chimaev got right to work with a single-leg which Usman defended. Chimaev stayed in control and finally got the welterweight on the floor. During the second round, the narrative changed with Usman keeping the fight standing.
The third round started off nicely for Usman but the fight came to a halt when Chimaev landed a double-leg takedown. Usman is now on a three-fight losing streak with two losses to Leon Edwards.
Speaking on the fight, Irish professional mixed martial artist and professional boxer, Conor McGregor, said “not a tremendous fight. It could have became one over 5 rounds, however. The lack of urgency post sprawling that takedown at the start of round 3 was disappointing and not indicative of what’s on the table with a W. Happy to let opponent back up and re center and tip tap away.”
“Not impressed”, Italian professional mixed martial artist, Marvin Vettori, posted on X. “The speech was good tho”, he added. Renato moicano, also posted on X saying “Kamaru Usman was a champ for a reason… 5 rounds… with a camp he beats Chimaev… very impressive performance by Usman.”
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