Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos narrowly edges Abubakar Nurmagomedov on the cards at UFC on ESPN 46
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us tonight, June 3, 2023, for UFC on ESPN 46, going down live from the UFC Apex in Enterprise, Nevada.
Headlining the event is a highly anticipated flyweight encounter between no. 3 ranked Kai Kara-France (24-10, 1 NC) and no. 7 ranked Amir Albazi (16-1).
Co-headlining the event is a featherweight bout between Alex Caceres (20-13, 1 NC) and Daniel Pineda (28-14, 3 NC).
Opening up the main card tonight was a welterweight bout between Abubakar Nurmagomedov (17-4-1) and Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos (24-7).
Nurmagomedov had gone 2-1 thus far inside the octagon, most recently having defeated Gadzhi Omargadzhiev last October.
Dos Santos on the other handheld a seven-fight win streak inside the promotion from 2016 to 2019. He’s since gone 2-2, most recently defeating Benoit Saint-Denis back in October of 2021.
Continue reading to see how this welterweight encounter went down:
Official Result: Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos def. Abubakar Nurmagomedov via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
Nurmagomedov utilizes good boxing through the first round as dos Santos looks to keep the distance with his kicks.
Nurmagomedov searches for the takedown throughout the second round. He did this in the first as well, though dos Santos did a good job of keeping his back off the cage. However, he spends much of the middle stretch with his back pressed to the fence, and eventually gets foot swept in the final seconds of the round, ending it on his back.
Dos Santos is able to stuff most of Nurmagomedov’s takedown attempts in the third and final round. He lets go with his striking, which worked well for him, though he did go for a front choke later on in the round when Nurmagomedov shot in on a double leg.
This saw Nurmagomedov shrug the choke off and gain top position, though the two don’t stay on the mat long. Nurmagomedov instead jumps on dos Santos’ back and searches for the rear naked choke. About 20 seconds later dos Santos peels one of Nurmagomedov’s hooks off in the final seconds of the bout.
Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos hasn’t fought in nearly two years, and he improves his streak to two-straight tonight at UFC on ESPN 46 with this win over Abubakar Nurmagomedov.
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