Germany’s Niklas Stolze was set to make his promotional debut at UFC Fight Island 3 on Saturday night. One of five debuting fighters at the promotion’s final stop on Fight Island, welterweight Stolze was tasked with taking on the dangerous Ramazan Emeev.
We caught up with Stolze ahead of his debut, where he told us that he was ready to carry the flag for German MMA. Saturday represented his first real opportunity to do so.
Stolze early on was landing low calk kicks that looked very heavy. That forced Emeev to shoot early, and he did get a takedown. Stolze got back up quickly however. After a takedown attempt, Emeev threatened with a front choke but Stolze got back to his feet. A nice wizard from Stoltze saw him avoiding the takedown in the later half of the round. A double leg takedown landed for Emeev and while a guillotine seemed in, Emeev escaped quite easily. In the closing seconds of round one Stolze landed a knee hurting Emeev at the bell.
Stolze was walking Emeev down early in the second, looking like the much fresher fighter. He was finding a lot of success landing the leg kick which was slowing Emeev’s forward motion. Emeev was landing well with long strikes. Stolze wasn’t nearly as active in the later part of round two. Emeev was blitzing in and landing well. Also the jab from Emeev was landing, and he was hitting the target much more.
At the start of the final round Ramazan Emeev shot in for the takedown and pressed Stolze to the cage. Stolze got out of that position after surviving an rear-naked choke and a nice knee off the break. Stolze actually mixed it up and secured a takedown of his own. Too little, too late as Emeev had more success with knees in the clinch, a nice jab, and his one-two.
Official Result: Ramazan Emeev def. via Niklas Stolze by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
