Magomed Ankalaev knocks Ion Cutelaba out in round one of rematch at UFC 254

Reigning Undisputed UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov returns to the octagon today to face interim UFC Lightweight Champion Justin Gaethje in UFC 254‘s main event.

The co-main event showcases a No. 1 contender bout at middleweight, where the No. 1 ranked Robert Whittaker faces the No. 2 ranked Jared Cannonier for a chance to face Israel Adesanya sometime in 2021.

Opening up the main card today was a light-heavyweight rematch between Magomed Ankalaev and Ion Cutelaba. Their first ended in controversy, as the the fight was stopped early in round one with Anaklaev the winner via TKO.

Round 1

Cutelaba came out with a better gameplan than he did in their first encounter, he wasn’t pretending to be hurt at least. He came out pressuring Ankalaev, bobbing and weaving kind of like Mike Tyson, but he was getting picked apart.

Ankalaev dropped Cutelaba with a beautiful left cross as Cutelaba was attempting a spinning strike, but Cutelaba makes his way back to his feet and they’re back to striking.

Seconds later Cutelaba came in and ate a right hook-left cross counter that knocked him out. His head hitting the canvas woke him up momentarily, but Ankalaev followed up with more strikes to get the finish.

Official Result: Magomed Ankalaev def. Ion Cutelaba via KO (punches) at 4:19 of round one

Brady Ordway

I became a fan of combat sports when I was 12 years old. I was scrolling through the channels and landed upon Versus, where WEC was televised. Urijah Faber fought Jens Pulver for the second time that night. That's the first fight I ever saw, and I was immediately hooked. So eventually, I began covering the sport in the fourth quarter of 2018, and have since started writing about animals as well. If you'd like to see those pieces, be sure to check out learnaboutnature.com!

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