Islam Makhachev pulled off a sensational submission win over Charles Oliveira to win the light-weight title and Aljamain Sterling beat TJ Dillashaw by TKO to assert the bantamweight belt at UFC 280 on the Etihad Enviornment on Saturday.
Makhachev capped his ascent to the light-weight throne with a superb win by arm triangle choke in opposition to Brazilian Oliveira, the holder of the UFC report for submission wins with 16.
Oliveira was stripped of the light-weight belt in Could when he missed the load for his title conflict with Justin Gaethje and although he beat the American the title remained vacant, organising the showdown with Russian Makhachev.
After spending a lot of the primary spherical defending and attempting to threaten with submissions off his again, Oliveira tried to maintain the struggle on the toes within the second spherical.
That tactic seemed prefer it was paying off till he was decked by a punch from Makhachev, who wasted no time leaping on his opponent, locking within the choke and forcing the faucet for Oliveira.
Makhachev devoted the win to his late coach Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, who died in 2020, saying: “A few years in the past he informed me simply practice onerous and I can be champion,” earlier than handing the belt to Khabib Nurmagomedov who took over from his father because the Russian’s coach and is himself a former UFC light-weight champion.
His eleventh submission win strikes the 31-year-old Makhachev on to a report of 23 wins and one loss as a professional.
Within the co-main occasion Dillashaw, who had to surrender the belt and serve a two-year suspension after testing constructive for EPO in 2019, suffered a dislocated shoulder early within the first spherical however by some means made it by the primary body.
Reigning champion Sterling didn’t let up and Dillashaw’s shoulder popped out once more within the second spherical, permitting the 33-year-old Jamaican-American to take him down and dominate him till referee Mark Goddard referred to as a halt
“I in all probability popped it out about 20 instances in coaching camp… I informed the ref within the again that my shoulder might be going to come out, we’ll put it again so if it does do not cease (the struggle),” American Dillashaw stated in his post-fight interview.
In the principle card’s different large struggle, American Sean O’Malley received a detailed break up determination over Russian Petr Yan after a three-round brawl to place himself in pole place for a shot on the bantamweight title.
This story has been revealed from a wire company feed with out modifications to the textual content.