Sergei Pavlovich storms through Shamil Abdurakhimov in return at UFC London

The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us today, March 19, 2022, for UFC Fight Night 204, going down live from the O2 Arena in London, England.

Headlining the event is a heavyweight clash between former M-1 & Bellator champion Alexander Volkov (No. 6) and rising contender Tom Aspinall (No. 11).

Co-headlining the event is Dan Hooker’s return to the featherweight division, as he takes on No. 7 ranked Arnold Allen.

Sergei Pavlovich returned tonight for the first time since 2019 to face Shamil Abdurakhimov in a Russia vs Russia bout.

Continue reading to see how this bout went down:

Official Result: Sergei Pavlovich def. Shamil Abdurakhimov via TKO (punches) at 4:03 of round one

Both men open up the bout cautiously, aware of the danger each of them possesses.

Pavlovich gets his jab going, while stuffing a couple of Abdurakhimov’s early takedown attempts. He then swarms Adburakhimov with a barrage of punches, again stuffing Abdurakhimov’s takedown following.

Pavlovich is then able to hurt Adburakhimov and again swarms his opponent, only this time they’re on the ground. A hell of a lot of punches soon follow, and eventually the fight is stopped. It was a little late, but nonetheless, a great win for the Russian talent.

ANOTHER RD1 KO for Sergei Pavlovich pic.twitter.com/WWqbCGqfYg

— Spinnin Backfist (@SpinninBackfist) March 19, 2022

Sergei Pavlovich came to the UFC back in 2018 as the FNG heavyweight champion with a record of 12-0.

After losing his promotional debut to Alistair Overeem via TKO toward the end of round one, a fight he was taken down and mauled in, he went 2-0 with back-to-back knockout victories in 2019. He finally returned to the octagon tonight to secure his third straight knockout victory inside the UFC.

At just 29 years of age, turning 30 in May, Pavlovich is a very young heavyweight with all the potential in the world.

He’s now 15-1 as a professional with 12 victories coming via knockout. Oh, he’s also been to the five round distance before, when he claimed his championship in 2017.

Standing 6’4” with a reach of 84”, Pavlovich is going to be a tough out for most of the heavyweight division.

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Brady Ordway

I became a fan of combat sports when I was 12 years old. I was scrolling through the channels and landed upon Versus, where WEC was televised. Urijah Faber fought Jens Pulver for the second time that night. That's the first fight I ever saw, and I was immediately hooked. So eventually, I began covering the sport in the fourth quarter of 2018, and have since started writing about animals as well. If you'd like to see those pieces, be sure to check out learnaboutnature.com!

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