Referee Herb Dean had to pry Mukhamad Vakhaev off the neck of Sergey Belostenniy after calling a stop to their heavyweight title fight in main event of ACB 90 on Saturday in Moscow, Russia.
Vakhaev came from behind to claim the first-round rear-naked choke victory after spending the guts of the fight on the end of body shots from the challenger.
In the moments after the stoppage, Dean continued to reprimand the champion as he told him “Do not do that again.”
The win marked Vakhaev’s fifth in a row. It was also the first defense of his heavyweight title, which he won in the division’s tournament final last year against Denis Goltsov. It was his second bout with Belostenniy, who met a similar demise in their first clash back in 2016.
Eduard Vartanyan likely cemented his status as the next challenger to Ali Bagov’s lightweight title after a breathtaking three rounds with Ustarmagomed Gadzhidaudov.
Vartanyan burst into action after getting clipped early in the first. He fired back at his opponent with a big shot just before the end of the first and managed to put an exclamation point on the second round with another stunning blow. Gadzhidaudov was not deterred after eating the two big shots and continued to press forward in the third.
All five judges scored the contest for Vartanyan after 15 minutes.
Andre Winner proved to be a worthy adversary for Yusup Raisov’s lightweight debut, forcing the blue-chip prospect the distance. The former UFC fighter proved tricky to take down in the first and despite “Wolf” taking up his favorite position on the Brit’s back in the dying embers, he was unable to force the stoppage.
Oleg Borisov separated Thiago Henrique from his senses with a devastating left hook early in the second round after an energetic back in forth over the opening five minutes.
Former Bellator and UFC fighter Marcin Held took his second first-round heel hook win in as many outings with ACB when he forced a dramatic tap from Musa Khamanaev after he engaged the Polish submission ace in leg lock battle. Held called for a fight in Poland after the win.
Magomed Magomedov handed highly touted Brazilian Walter Pereira Jr. his first loss under the ACB banner. The Russian controlled the action once he established top position. He secured the guillotine off a scramble and quickly forced the tap from Pereira Jr. The win has underlined his status as one of the lightweight division’s top contenders.
Georgi Karakhanyan’s second ACB outing against Timur Nagibin ended in controversy. Karakhanyan was trying to tighten a guillotine in the dying embers of the first round. He let go of the choke at the end of the round freeing Nagibin, who then punched Karakhanyan after the bell sounded, leading to his disqualification.
Main card
- Mukhamad Vakhaev def. Sergey Belostenniy via rear-naked choke in R1
- Eduard Vartanyan def. Ustarmagomed Gadzhidaudov via unanimous decision
- Yusup Raisov def. Andre Winner via unanimous decision
- Oleg Borisov def. Thiago Henrique via KO (left hook) in R2
- Marcin Held def. Musa Khamanaev via submission (heel hook) in R1
- Magomed Magomedov def. Walter Pereira Jr. via submission (guillotine) in R1
- Georgi Karakhanyan def. Timura Nagibina via DQ (shot after the bell) in R1
Preliminary Card
- Gamzat Khiramagomedov def. Jae Young Kim via (doctor’s stoppage) in R3
- Salimgerey Rasulov def. Tanner Boser via unanimous decision
- Rasul Mirzaev def. Gleristone Santos via KO (left hook) in R2
- Alexey Polpudnikov def. Alexander Peduson via TKO (strikes) in R2
- Alexey Butorin def. Cory Hendricks via TKO (strikes) in R1
- Alexander Sarnavskiy def. Herdeson Batista via TKO (knee and strikes) in R1
- Abdul-Rakhman Temirov def. Tural Ragimov via KO (liver kick) in R1
- Sharaf Davlatmurodov def. Umar Yankovskiy via TKO in R1
