Sanabul Fight News: UFC London 2
UFC London 2 was a very anticipated card with the return of Paddy Pimblett, Molly McCann, Muhammad Mokaev, and more UK stars getting the opportunity to shine at the O2 once again.
Jai Herbert and Muhammad Mokaev both had extremely impressive wins on the prelims to get the card off to a hot start. Jai Herbert ended up winning a decision victory over Kyle Nelson, out striking him in the three-rounder and pulling out a decision victory to move his record up to 12-4. Muhammad absolutely dominated his second fight in the UFC with 12 takedowns and an incredible grappling performance to secure himself as one of the top flyweight contenders right now in the UFC. Mokaev is extremely dangerous and I would look for him to get a big jump, potentially to a Top 5 Flyweight next.
Jonathan Pearce and Nathaniel Wood both got wins at the featherweight division as well, with Jonathan Pearce earning his by ground and pound (TKO) and earned himself his 13th professional MMA win against Makwan Amirkhani. Nathaniel Wood moved up to Featherweight from Bantamweight and ended up winning his featherweight debut by unanimous decision against veteran Charles Rosa.
Marc Diakiese used his incredible grappling for the second time in a row to absolutely dominate his opponent and get a unanimous decision victory over 14-7 Damir Hadzovic. Ludovit Klein finished off the prelims by beating Mason Jones via unanimous decision in a very good battle of a matchup, with Klein sticking out on the judges scorecards in the end moving him to 19-4 as a pro.
Volkan Oezdemir and Molly McCann ended up victorious to start off the main card in exciting fashion. Oezdemir was looking to make a statement against surging Paul Craig, who ended up being unable to dominate Volkan on the mat like he normally is able to do to his opponents. Volkan ended up pulling through with three 30-27 judges scorecards for a dominant unanimous decision. Molly McCann ended up finishing Hannah Goldy for her second knockout in London this year, with Herb Dean having to call the fight in the first round. Molly has really proven herself as a very dangerous striker, and definitely a fan favorite in the UFC, surging through the rankings in an attempt to meet Valentina Schevchenko at the top of the division for that title shot.
With Alex Gustaffson returning, and Paddy Pimblett getting another chance to shine, the next two fights were definitely highly anticipated by the crowd in the O2 arena. Nikita Krylov was the opponent for Alex, and spoiled the fun for all the fans of the UFC veteran, finishing Gus in the first round with a very dominant striking performance that led Marc Goddard to stop the fight. Paddy Pimblett and Jordan Leavitt was being looked at as a super exciting fight, especially with the extremely odd trash talk between the two characters leading up to the fight. With both fighters being very good grapplers, it wasn’t a surprise that both were trying to implement their BJJ skills the whole fight, with Paddy ending up locking up a Rear-Naked Choke in the second round that moves him up to 19-3 as a pro, and will likely having him fighting Top 10 opponents in the near future.
The co-main event had Chris Curtis matched up against Jack “The Joker” Hermansson, with Chris replacing Darren Till on short notice. Jack ended up fighting a very disciplined and quite dominant striking performance, winning with two 29-28 scorecards and one 30-27. This isn’t a bad loss for Curtis accepting the fight on short notice, but this definitely feels good for The Joker, putting him back in the win column in the middleweight division.
The Main Event was quite disappointing for many fans, with the fight ending 15 seconds into the first round after Aspinall landed a leg kick on the thigh of Curtis, that ended up having Tom falling over onto the ground due to an injury to his own leg. Blaydes stated that he does not want an immediate rematch, and instead wants to fight the winner of the Gane/Tuivasa matchup that would bring him closer to the next title shot.