Islam Makhachev stops Charles Oliveira, wins UFC lightweight title at UFC 280
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us today, October 22, 2022, live from the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi for UFC 280.
The event is to be headlined by a UFC lightweight championship clash between no. 1 ranked Charles Oliveira (33-8) and no. 4 ranked Islam Makhachev (22-1), who come into the bout on 11-fight and 10-fight win streaks respectively.
Co-headlining the event was another title fight, this one between UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling (21-3), who aimed to make the second defense of his title against former two-time divisional champion TJ Dillashaw (17-4).
Reverting back to our main event; Oliveira had won three-straight championship fights coming in, and he’d defeated world champions in his last four encounters. Of his 11-straight wins, 10 come via finish. Makhachev on the other hand came into the bout having finished his last four opponents in a row since returning from a year-and-a-half absence in 2021.
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Continue reading to see how this lightweight championship bout went down:
Official Result: Islam Makhachev def. Charles Oliveira via submission (arm-triangle choke) at 3:16 of round two
We see a very strong start from the Russian in round one, as he spends the majority of the first five minutes in top position. This begins with a takedown about 30 seconds into the bout, before Oliveira works his way up.
Makhachev secures another takedown along the fence not long after, this one a beautiful hip toss, and he remains on top until the bell sounds.
Makhachev continues with his pressure into the second round, though Oliveira is able to keep the fight on its feet.
However, Makhachev drops him with a beautiful right hook and jumps straight to half guard, where he immediately locks up an arm-triangle choke and secures the submission finish.
https://twitter.com/SandhuMMA/status/1583925481703104512?s=20&t=lwZWJDBNUX4Bjr_CWuS2WQ
Many pegged Makhachev to be a future champion ever since he made his UFC debut back in 2015 at UFC 187.
Today, seven years removed from his promotional debut, he claims the UFC lightweight championship by submitting the man with the most submission victories in UFC history (16).
What a performance by Islam Makhachev, our new UFC lightweight champion. He’s now 23-1 as a professional, and he’s now on an 11-fight win streak with five-straight finishes.
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