Al Ain, United Arab Emirates – Lany Silva 7-3 and Michele Oliveira 6-1 put on a show for the ages when they contested the vacant UAE Warriors Women’s Strawweight title. After five rounds of back-and-forth action it was São Paulo’s BJJ star Oliveira who won a razor-close split decision thanks to her consistent forward-footed pressure.
With thirteen other bouts on a stacked card in front of a sold-out ADNEC Centre in Al Ain in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, the pressure was on the main event to deliver. And it did that in spades. With some early takedowns and effective countering it was Oliveira who came out strong but as the rounds ticked by, Silva was scoring more effectively with her counter-striking and reversals on the canvas. But Oliveira’s aggression swayed the judges to become the new champ.
The co-main event was a brief affair thanks to another superb first-round finish from promotional mainstay Bruno Machado 19-9 who took on Aussie vet Brentin Mumford 11-10. After a good right hand from the Gold Coast brawler, ‘Caveira’ hit the trip to settle into full mount and sink in an arm triangle to take the tap and continue an astonishing ten-fight win streak.
A bout for the bragging rights of Dagestan between Abdurakhman Alimagomedov 13-1 and Anvarbek Daniyalbekov 11-1 was a controversial affair after the latter was deducted a point for repeated fence grabs followed by more warning for shots to the back of the head. After another scramble and more illegal blows, the referee stopped the fight with Alimagomedov unable to continue for which his hand was raised. Daniyalbekov was furious at his DQ and had to be escorted from the Octagon by hordes of security.
Promotional debutante and ONE Championship vet Reece McLaren 19-9 took an assured decision victory over Yamato Fujita 14-6 in a fascinating flyweight tussle in which Tokyo’s all-rounder immediately started out by targeting the Australian’s lead leg forcing McLaren to deploy his superior offensive wrestling and take the UD. The hottest 135lb prospect in Azerbaijan, Mehemmedeli Osmanli 11-0 reminded the world why he is being so hotly-tipped for global success by handing Tajikistan’s Bakhtovar Yunusov 10-1 his first ever defeat with a second-round guillotine.
Even though the main card was full of top-drawer action, there were several prelim wars of note, particularly that between Turkmenistan’s Basir ‘Ozden’ Saraliev 11-1 and Shakhban Alkhasov 9-3 which saw Saraliev negating the Russian’s reach advantage with tight and technical counter-striking which quickly bore fruit with a sensational first-round KO. Certainly the knockout of the night however, went to Shamidkhan Magomedov 11-1 with a jaw-dropping head-kick finish of Marcos Santana 7-2 and it was a superb return to the Warriors Octagon for Egypt’s Ahmed ‘The Prince’ Faress 23-8 who took the tap from the talented SBG Italian, Walter ‘The Snatch’ Cogliandro 15-9-1 with a brilliantly-executed back take in the third round to sink in the rear naked choke to continue his claim that ownership of the UAE Warriors Featherweight belt is his destiny. UAE Warriors returns on the 11th of December for a historic night of fights in Lebanon.
