Curtis Blaydes easily took down Shamil Abdurakhimov mutliple times in their main card fight at UFC 242 before eventually putting him away with vicious ground and pound elbows.
Round One:
Both fighters throw an early punch and then Blaydes straight after goes in for an early takedown and brings Abdurakhimov down to his knees against the cage.
Abdurakhimov able to stand back up, but not for long as Blaydes dumps him back down to the canvas. Blaydes in side control, but Abdurakhimov is getting back to his knees here.
Blaydes staying tight to his opponent as he stands back up, but this time Abdurakhimov is able to break free and go back to striking range.
Stepping jab for Blaydes, but eats an uppercut. Blaydes back into another takedown and lands it easily again. A good sign for him so early in the fight.
Abdurakhimov on his knees as before waiting for his opportunity to try and work his way back to the feet against the cage.
Abdurakhimov not in a rush to stand as he thinks about a kimura and Blaydes opts to land a few knees to the leg which leads to his opponent standing. However, Blaydes thumps him back to the mat again.
Blaydes keeping Abdurakhimov off his knees this time and instead manages to transition smoothly from half guard to full mount and then starts to hammer down big ground and pound punches and elbows.
Abdurakhimov in trouble here, but the round ends and probably saves him from potentially being finished.
Round Two:
Blaydes coming forward for the takedown early as Abdurakhimov lets his hands go and connects with an uppercut. Nevertheless that doesn’t stop Blaydes from getting in and landing that takedown.
Blaydes working to side control now, keeping Abdurakhimov on his back as he returns to half guard. However, Abdurakhimov does manage to work to his knees.
Big right hooks to the head from Blaydes here and Abdurakhimov takes a good few of those before he attempts to escape and rolls to his back.
Blaydes blasts him with a big elbow to the nose and that bloodies up Abdurakhimov. The fighter grabs at his potentially broken nose and that’s all the referee needs to see to step in and put an end to the fight by TKO with 2.22mins of the second round gone.
