Rinat Fakhretdinov drops and submits Kevin Lee in a mere 55 seconds at UFC Vegas 76
Rinat Fakhretdinov comes up big in Vegas
The Ultimate Fighting Championships returns to us tonight for UFC Vegas 76, going down live from the UFC Apex in Enterprise, Nevada.
Headlining the event is a middleweight showdown between no. 7 ranked Sean Strickland (26-5) and Russian finisher Abus Magomedov (25-4-1).
Co-headlining the event is a lightweight encounter between Damir Ismagulov (24-2) and Grant Dawson (19-1-1).
Our preliminary main event of the evening came at 170 lbs showcasing the return of former interim lightweight title challenger Kevin Lee (19-8), and the UFC didn’t give him an easy opponent to return to, Moscow native Rinat Fakhretdinov (21-1).
Lee most recently fought at Eagle FC 46 in March of 2022, defeating Diego Sanchez via unanimous decision. Prior to that he’d gone 2-5 over his latest seven appearances upon his UFC departure. Fakhretdinov on the other hand had gone 2-0 thus far into his UFC career.
Continue reading to see how this welterweight encounter went down:
Official Result: Rinat Fakhretdinov def. Kevin Lee via technical submission (guillotine choke) at :55 of round one
Fakhretdinov opens up the bout with some crisp striking, landing a leg kick in the early goings, and clipping Lee with his jab a couple times early on. He then lands a thunderous overhand right that drops Lee on the spot.
The Russian proceeds to jump on a guillotine choke, where he finishes the fight in under one minute.
This was an incredibly tough fight for Kevin Lee to return to the UFC for, and Rinat Fakhretdinov just proved it.
If you enjoyed this piece, feel free to share it on social media!
