Islam Makhachev mauls Drew Dober; earns a third-round submission win
Islam Makhachev submits Drew Dober early in third round
There are three title fights going down at UFC 259 this Saturday, March 6.
The main event is when two champions will collide as the middleweight king Israel Adesanya challenges the light-heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. The reigning women’s bantamweight and featherweight champion Amanda Nunes welcomes Australia’s Megan Anderson in the co-main event.
Bantamweight title holder Petr Yan makes his first defense against the surging Aljamain Sterling in the first championship bout of the evening.
Right before the trio of title fights, a lightweight bout will take place between Islam Makhachev and Drew Dober.
Makhachev (18-1) comes into the fight ranked No. 14 in the world according to the official UFC lightweight rankings. After suffering his lone career loss to Adriano Martins at UFC 192 in 2015, Makhachev hasn’t tallied six straight wins. This will be the Russians first fight since September 2019. Makhachev is a training partner of Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Dober (23-9, 1NC) is currently knocking on the door of once again being ranked in the UFC’s toughest division. Coming into this fight, Dober is riding a three-fight winning streak and wins in six of his last seven contests. He won both his fights in 2020 against Nasrat Haqparast and Alexander Hernandez.
Here’s how the Makhachev and Dober fight went down with a round-by-round breakdown and scoring. For a full list of UFC 259 results, click here.
Round 1
Dober lands the first strike of the fight with a leg kick 30 seconds in. He lands another one a few seconds later.
Makhachev shoots in for a single leg and secures the takedown and the end of the opening minute. He’s now on top with four minutes to work.
Dober defending well as Makhachev isn’t do much while laying on top for a minute now.
Makhachev is getting more active on top of Dober, but nothing significant is landing.
Dober is now in a bad spot as Makhachev moves into mount. Makhachev now passes into side control and he’s landing strikes.
Dober scrambles and tries to escape, but Makhachev is able to control him gets him back down. Dober tries to escape again and Makhachev gets ahold of Dober’s arm and tries for an arm bar. He doesn’t get the submission, but held the arm bar for the final seconds of the round.
MyMMANews scores it 10-9 Makhachev
Round 2
Dober comes out swinging and misses. Makhachev immediately goes for a takedown and he gets it. He is now on top of Dober again. Only different is this time they are by the cage. The last round they were in the center of the octagon.
Makhachev is working to find a dominate position, Dober isn’t allowing him to find one. The referee warns the two to get busy.
Makhachev gets Dober away from the fence and he’s landing some strikes from on top, but again nothing is significant. He is just using his body weight to keep Dober down and maul him.
Makhachev is starting to get more active here in the final minute of the round. He lands two or three heavy elbows.
So far we’ve seen 10 minutes of action and Makhachev has been on top of Dober for over eight of them. Round two was close to being a 10-8 round especially with the big shots at the end of the round.
MyMMANews scores it 10-9 Makhachev
Round 3
Dober needs a finish. He’s down two round and possibly a 10-8 round.
Meanwhile, Makhachev isn’t going to let him do that. He gets a takedown within the first minute.
Makhachev get Dober flattened out and gets an arm triangle locked in and Dober taps out early in round three.
Official Result: Islam Makhachev defeats Drew Dober by submission (Arm Triangle) – Round 3 (1:37)
