Justin Gaethje bloodies Rafael Fiziev in all-out kickboxing war at UFC 286
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us today, March 18, 2023, for UFC 286, going down live from the o2 Arena in London, England.
Headlining the event is a welterweight championship bout between Leon Edwards (20-3, 1 NC) and Kamaru Usman (20-2), the third time these two squared off inside the octagon.
Co-headlining the event was a lightweight contest between no. 3 ranked former title challenger Justin Gaethje (24-4) and no. 6 ranked fellow knockout artist Rafael Fiziev (12-2).
Gaethje has demonstrated himself to be one of the hardest hitting, most vicious leg kicking, dangerous strikers in the entire sport of MMA with 19 of his 23 wins coming via knockout. Then we have Fiziev, a 39-8 (29 knockouts) professional kickboxing champion that came into tonight’s showdown on a six-fight win streak.
Continue reading to see how this epic co-main event clash went down:
Official Result: Justin Gaethje def. Rafael Fiziev via majority decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-28)
Fiziev opens up the bout with a pair of switch kicks to the body, though Gaethje makes him miss both and lands a thunderous leg kick shortly thereafter that spins him around.
Gaethje does seem to be a little baffled by the speed of Fiziev as the opening round goes on, but he’s able to land a some counter punches here and there. Fiziev lands a vicious knee at the end of the first, though Gaethje eats it and we go into round two.
Both men have a lot of success in the second, each of them landing heavy strikes; Gaethje is countering well with both his left and right hands, and Fiziev is landing that trademark body kick of his.
It’s a close fight going into the third.
Fiziev lands a vicious hook that stuns Gaethje early on in the third and final round, Gaethje regains his composure quickly however.
Gaethje gets his jab going after eating that nasty hook, which really sets up his other strikes. He lands a nasty overhand midway through the round, and follows it up with an uppercut that also lands heavily.
Gaethje lands at least five or six nasty uppercuts in the third, he seemingly couldn’t miss with it and it showed, Fiziev’s face was busted up bad in this one. ‘The Highlight’ also secures his first takedown of the fight, as well as the first takedown of his UFC career at the very end of the bout.
Justin Gaethje gets back to his winning ways after an absolute war with fellow top contender Rafael Fiziev at UFC 286.
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