The UFC light heavyweight division has a new contender.
Stepping up on short notice, competing on the same night a record was tied for the most decisions on a UFC card with 10, ex-middleweight Anthony Smith elevated himself above the trend and made a thunderous statement Sunday in the main event of UFC Hamburg, demolishing MMA legend Mauricio Rua with a hellacious barrage of punches just 89 seconds into the opening round at the Barclaycard Arena in Hamburg, Germany.
Smith (26-10) staggered Rua (25-11) early with a right hand, then swarmed the former champion with devastating punches and elbows before downing “Shogun” for good with a savage standing elbow.
The performance mirrored Smith’s 53-second knockout over another MMA legend, Rashad Evans, last month at UFC 225 in Smith’s debut at 205 pounds, and “Lionheart” wasted no time getting on the mic and calling for his third fight in three months, offering to fill in against top contender Alexander Gustafsson on August 4 at UFC 227.
“I think Alexander Gustafsson needs an opponent,” Smith announced. “Gustafsson, I’ll see you in LA!”
In perhaps the most impressive performance of his UFC career, another short-notice replacement, Corey Anderson (12-4), shellacked one-time title contender Glover Teixeira (27-7) to sweep the judges’ scorecards and win a unanimous decision in the night’s co-main event.
A light heavyweight TUF 19 winner, Anderson bested Teixeira in virtually every phase of the fight, using rangy lefts and rights and a nasty short uppercut to win the stand-up game, and wearing Teixeira down with a barrage of grueling clinchwork and takedown attempts along the fence. Anderson even appeared to briefly stagger Teixeira with a counter right hook midway through the second round, and generally was never in trouble aside from a Teixeira guillotine attempt in the closing seconds of the opening frame.
After the victory, which came via unanimous 30-27 scores, Anderson went the opposite direction of Smith and noted that a quick turnaround to meet Gustafsson at UFC 227 would be unlikely for him.
“As much as I want to say yes [to Gustafsson], I’m not going to put my wife through that, two short-notice fights; my team, have them keep traveling,” Anderson said. “Take some time, go to the drawing board, and if I’ve got to rematch one of the guys who beat me who are ranked above me right now, I’m ready for whatever, but I want the best fight I can get, to get to that title as soon as possible.”
Elsewhere on the card, middleweight newcomer Abu Azaitar (14-1-1) made sure his Octagon debut was a successful one. The Morocco native returned from a near two-year layoff to defeat Vitor Miranda (13-7) via unanimous decision.
Although it may have not been the most aesthetically pleasing contest, Azaitar did what he needed to do to win, first controlling the opening round with a relentless — albeit sloppy — series of Lineker-esque looping hooks, then out-muscling Miranda on the mat for the final 10 minutes to win via scores of 30-27, 30-27, and 29-28.
A TUF Brazil 3 finalist who started his Octagon career with a 3-1 run, Miranda succumbed to his first-ever three-fight losing streak with the setback at UFC Hamburg.
“It was a tough fight for me, usually I fight at welterweight and this was my debut in the UFC,” Azaitar said. “Fighting in the middleweight after such a long time was hard, because I had to deal with his weight and size. I don’t care though, I will continue fighting anyone.”
Heavyweight veteran Marcin Tybura snapped a two-fight losing streak with a takedown-heavy unanimous decision win over Stefan Struve.
In a largely dull contest, Tybura wrestled Struve down to the canvas in all three rounds and stifled the 7-foot Dutchman with smothering top control and steady ground-and-pound. Notably, Tybura opened up a grisly cut below Struve’s lower lip in the second frame. The judges ultimately scored the contest 30-27, 30-27, and 29-28 in Tybura’s favor, pushing the Pole’s Octagon record to 4-3 and dropping Struve to the first three-fight losing streak of his 13-year MMA career.
Earlier in the night, Danny Roberts (16-3) eked out a split decision over Octagon newcomer David Zawada (16-4) in a wild, back-and-forth welterweight affair.
Roberts spent much of the first two rounds working methodically from top position while defending a litany of submission attempts from his German foe, but round three was a different story entirely. For basically the full final five minutes, “Hot Chocolate” and Zawada engaged in a non-stop scramble-fest that saw Zawada nearly catch Roberts in multiple submissions, including an extremely tight anaconda choke. Ultimately, it was too little, too late though, as Roberts took the judges’ decision by scores of 29-28, 27-30, and 29-28, then called out welterweight contender Neil Magny.
“Neil Magny, I seen your ass,” Roberts said. “I’m not impressed at all. So let’s get it on, because you’re my ticket to the top 10, brother.”
Nasrat Haqparast kicked off the UFC Hamburg main card with an impressive upset over Marc Diakiese. A 22-year-old lightweight prospect fighting out of Tristar Gym, Haqparast (9-2) befuddled Diakiese (12-3) with relentless forward pressure, outclassed the 25-year-old Englishman at his own standup game, and badly damaged Diakiese’s right eye, which was swollen shut by the end of the second round.
Haqparast’s best moment came in the closing seconds of the aforementioned second round, when he dropped Diakiese with a blistering right hook and looked to be well on his way to finishing the contest before “Bonecrusher” was saved by the bell.
In the end, all three judges scored the bout for Haqparast (30-27, 30-27, 30-26), giving the young prospect his first Octagon win. Diakiese, meanwhile, suffered his third straight loss after beginning his UFC career with an eye-catching 3-0 run.
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