Alexander Volkov submits Tai Tuivasa with Ezekiel choke in UFC 293 co-main event

The Ultimate Fighting Championship returned to us tonight, September 9, 2023, for UFC 293, going down live from the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia.

Headlining the event is a title clash between UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya (24-2) and no. 5 ranked Sean Strickland (27-5). Adesanya had just reclaimed the throne in his most recent outing against Alex Pereira back in April, while Strickland came in on a two-fight win streak and was making his fourth-straight main event appearance.

Our co-main event of the evening came in the heavyweight division between no. 6 ranked Tai Tuivasa (14-6) and no. 7 ranked former Bellator & M-1 Global heavyweight champion Alexander Volkov (37-10).

Tuivasa, following a five-fight knockout streak from 2020-to-2022, had since lost his last two-straight, while Volkov, following defeat to no. 4 ranked Tom Aspinall in March of 2022, had since won his last two-straight via first round knockout.

Continue reading to see how our heavyweight co-main event of the evening went down:

Official Result: Alexander Volkov def. Tai Tuivasa via submission (Ezekiel choke) at 4:37 of round two

Tuivasa invests heavily in landing his leg kicks throughout round one, though he’s getting tagged up in almost every exchange. Volkov unloads on him toward the end of the opening round and it appears he may have been saved by the bell.

Tuivasa continues to batter the lead leg of Volkov in round two, but Volkov catches one and sits him down with a counter. Once Tuivasa returns to his feet, Volkov catches another leg kick and again puts him on his back, this time jumping straight into mount.

Following a solid 90 or so seconds of ground-and-pound and a failed arm-triangle attempt Volkov sinks in an Ezekiel choke for the stoppage victory.

ALEXANDER VOLKOV SUBMITS TAI TUIVASA! WHAT A WIN!#UFC293

https://t.co/VozvakZEJc

— MMA Orbit (@mma_orbit) September 10, 2023

Tai Tuivasa has now lost his last three-straight fights, while Volkov improves his win streak, and finish streak to three-straight tonight at UFC 293; he is just the third fighter in UFC history to finish a fight with an Ezekiel choke.

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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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