Magomed Ankalaev secures UD victory over Volkan Oezdemir at UFC 267
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to Fight Island today, Saturday, October 30, 2021, for UFC 267, the first non-PPV numbered event since UFC 138 back in November of 2011. That was six days shy of a decade ago..
Headlining the event is a light-heavyweight championship clash between Jan Blachowicz and No. 1 contender Glover Teixeira, while the co-main event will be contested in the bantamweight division, an interim title clash between No. 1 ranked former champion Petr Yan and No. 3 ranked Cory Sandhagen.
This could honestly be a vacant title fight.
Many people believe Yan to be better than our champion Aljamain Sterling, though he lost their bout via DQ, and many believe Sandhagen defeated Dillashaw over the summer, though he lost via split decision.
Our feature fight of the night will be contested in the lightweight division between No. 5 ranked Islam Makhachev and No. 6 ranked Dan Hooker as well. This is the best free card ever put on by the UFC!
Opening up the main card tonight was a light-heavyweight showdown between No. 7 ranked Magomed Ankalaev and No. 6 ranked former title challenger Volkan Oezdemir.
Continue reading to see how this epic light-heavyweight encounter went down:
Official Result: Magomed Ankalaev def. Volkan Oezdemir via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Round 1
Oezdemir comes out controlling the center of the octagon, and he appears to find his range quite quickly, as he lands a nasty hook-uppercut combo that stunned Ankalaev.
Ankalaev then ties up with him in order to negate the attack, before they’re back to striking range.
Ankalaev then lands a beautiful jab-cross combo that dropped Oezdemir toward the middle of the round, and Oezdemir’s range appeared to be lost from there on.
Round 2
Oezdemir spends the majority of round two relatively hesitant, though he does land some nice leg kicks from the outside. Ankalaev is on point, as always, after a slow start in the first. He catches a body kick from Oezdemir toward the end of the round, which he uses to take the Swede down.
The first round was close, each man hurt the other, though just one fell to the ground, and round two certainly went to the Russian.
Round 3
Ankalaev spends the entirety of round three picking Oezdemir apart. Oezdemir did attempt a takedown, but it was easily stuffed, and he was forced to strike for the rest of the fight.
Oezdemir had such a great start, but couldn’t keep it going once he got rocked.
Ankalaev improves to 16-1, with his only defeat coming to Paul Craig via submission at 4:59 of round three. He dominated over 14 minutes of that fight, this man’s going to be a serious problem for light-heavyweights in the near future.
