Abu Dhabi: The Nogueira vs Nelson battle lived up to its hype with American heavyweight Roy Nelson scoring a definitive victory over Brazilian MMA legend Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira with a vicious first round knockout on Friday at the Du Arena.
Coming into the fight, the talk was all about whether Nogueira, a skillful exponent of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu could avoid Nelson’s heavy hands, and the question was answered quickly. Almost too quickly.
Just minutes into the first round, the American rocked Nogueira with a rasping right that sent his opponent to the mat. Nogueira did well to recover and regain his feet. He resorted to the jab, in a bid to keep Nelson at bay, and was landing with frequency. But the bearded American was just biding his time to land his trademark hammerblow which he produced at 3 minutes and 37 seconds,to knock Nogueira out cold.
Nelson’s brutal knockout victory over Nogueira continues his clinical finishing, with all seven of his UFC win coming by way of knockouts. It also secured for him the performance of the night award.
“I was just waiting because he kept on throwing the left hand, left hand. He has a hard head and then I was like, ‘Ok, I have to throw the right hand’,” Nelson said in his post-fight interview.
“My goal was to get a takedown every per round, go five rounds, just kind of push the pace a little bit, but it just happened that my right hand landed first.
“Anytime you beat Big Nog that’s special, I mean, he’s a legend. If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t be fighting in MMA.”
Nelson also revealed that is big ambition was to fight for the title.
“I always want to fight for the belt, I don’t really care. Let me just start right there. I’ll work my way backwards,” he said.
The win brings Nelson’s professional MMA record to 20-9 while Nogueira drops to 34-9-1 with one no-contest.
Earlier, UFC Fight Night 39 began in controversy when the opening bantamweight bout between Rani Yahya and Johnny Bedford ended in a no contest as a result of an accidental head-butt.
John Bedford, who believed he had won by knockout, was angered by the referee’s decision which he called “ridiculous” and immediately called for a rematch, “June, come to Texas, my house, let’s fight,” he said.
Yahya said he was “ready to fight anytime” as both fighters had to be separated as they argued with each other in the cage.
The main card began with the fight most MMA fans in the UAE were looking forward to, with lightweight Ramsey Nijem from Palestine, up against Beneil Dariush from Iran.
Nijem came out with a great entrance, carrying a Palestinian flag, with a Palestinian dabke song playing in the background as he made his way into the octagon. The entrance made the fans in the du arena go wild.
Nijem’s performance was even more impressive than his entrance with an impressive first round TKO victory over Dariush after a flurry of punches that forced the referee to bring a stop to the bout.
Nijem was also awarded the performance of the night award as a result of his impressive victory.
After his victory Nijem spoke of his satisfaction of fighting in Abu Dhabi.
“Being a Palestinian it means a lot to come out here to fight for you guys”, he said. “I’m here to bring a title to the Middle East, I’m here for one thing now, I understand my role, I’m going to step up and win that title for the Middle East”
The co-main event of the night featuring featherweights Clay Guida and Tatsuya Kawajiri also lived up to its hype, receiving the fight of the night award. Guida secured a unanimous decision from all three judges to give him his second win in three since making his featherweight debut.
The fight saw Guida land several body slams on Kawajiri, who throughout the fight tried to lock the kimura submission hold on Guida, leading to an interesting grappling match between the two.
“I feel great, I hope the Abu Dhabi fans liked that grappling match,” said Guida after his victory.
UFC Fight Night itself was a major success in Abu Dhabi, with the event being a sell out with close to 8,000 fans at the du Arena, earning the event $1.8 million in ticket sales.
The event was also televised in 178 countries, and into 325 million households according to UFC Managing Director Gary Cook.
On future events in the country, Cook told fans “I don’t want to confirm anything, but it’s highly likely that this time next year we’ll be having this same conversation again. It’s really important for us to keep coming back every year, and so I’ll hazard a guess that we’ll be back this same time next year.”
