Anthony Hernandez beats Edmen Shahbazyan down, picks up third-round TKO at UFC Vegas 73

The Ultimate Fighting Championship returned to us today, May 20, 2023, for UFC Vegas 73, going down live from the UFC Apex in Enterprise, Nevada.

Headlining the event is a women’s strawweight encounter between no. 8 ranked BJJ sensation Mackenzie Dern (12-3) and no. 14 ranked kickboxer Angela Hill (15-12).

Co-headlining the event was a middleweight showdown between a pair of rising stars in Edmen Shahbazyan (12-4) and Anthony Hernandez (11-2, 1 NC).

Shahbazyan just snapped a three-fight losing skid in his latest appearance, where he picked up the victory via TKO in round two over Dalcha Lungiambula, while Hernandez has been on a real streak as of late. In 2021, Hernandez did the unthinkable by submitting (guillotine choke) the most accomplished BJJ fighter of all-time Rodolfo Vieira in round two, before defeating both Josh Fremd (UD) and Marc-Andre Barriault (arm-triangle choke) in 2022.

Continue reading to see how our 185 lb co-main event went down:

Official Result: Anthony Hernandez def. Edmen Shahbazyan via TKO (elbows) at 1:01 of round three

Shahbazyan looks very sharp on the feet in the early goings of the fight, though Hernandez’ pace begins to wear him down by the end of the first. Hernandez attempts a number of chokes, though Shahbazyan’s defense holds up well.

Round two is more of the same, as Hernandez absolutely works Shahbazyan on the mat, just mauling him throughout without giving him a chance of hope. Shahbazyan’s defense is still there however, as he makes it through to the end of the middle stretch.

Hernandez secures his sixth takedown of the fight within the first ten seconds of round three starting, and he begins to pound away with thunderous punches and elbows from top position. About one minute in, the referee was forced to stop the action.

Anthony Hernandez survived a tough first round and broke Edmen Shahbazyan over time for his third stoppage in four straight wins at #UFCVegas73. That's now a 1-4 run for Edmen since 2020 https://t.co/3Tjgls8eyn

— Shakiel Mahjouri (@Shak_Fu) May 21, 2023

Anthony Hernadnez improves his win streak to four-straight (3 finishes) tonight at UFC Vegas 73, picking up his second-straight third round finish in the process.

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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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