Themba Gorimbo took on Ramiz Brahimaj in the featured bout of UFC Vegas 92.
Themba earned more popularity than is normal for a fighter with a 2-1 UFC record when Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson gave him a house and supplies due to being inspired by Themba’s story. Gorimbo came from Uganda to Miami to chase his dream in MMA, and despite living paycheck to paycheck he still sends money back home to help his village build wells for clean water.
Ramiz Brahimaj was not about to roll over and give up just because of an inspirational story though. The Fortis MMA product is a grappling specialist who won all of his fights by submission, and he looked to exploit Gorimbo’s inexperience in the grappling realm in this one.
Ramiz shot a takedown in the first minute but had it stuffed easily. Themba clinched up, but Ramiz tried a throw, only succeeding in pulling his opponent down on top of himself. From full guard, Ramiz got his back to the fence and wall-walked up to his feet. Ramiz got on the outside of the clinch with his grappling experience aiding him, but the strength of Gorimbo was mostly dominant. He got on top again as Brahimaj did another sacrificial throws. Bizarrely, Themba did not separate from the clinch when Ramiz wall-walked again, despite having a seeming striking advantage. Brahimaj’s desperation to get takedowns showed his fear of Themba’s striking, but Gorimbo did not take advantage when he stopped the takedowns, so very little damage was done in the round, only a few clinch knees in total.
Themba opened the second round with brutal leg kicks but then clinched up when Brahimaj came forward to grapple. Ramiz kept trying takedowns over and over while Gorimbo did not work hard enough to make his foe strike with him. With two minutes left in the round Ramiz finally got a takedown and got to Themba’s back, but Gorimbo made him fall over the top. In the final thirty seconds the Ugandan got his own takedown.
After two slow rounds Themba seemed to be ahead two rounds to none. Ramiz began to look tired at the end of the second, but again to start the round Gorimbo clinched him. The entire rest of the fight transpired in the clinch, continuing the theme from the other rounds.
Themba won an easy decision in the end, but showed a stark contrast from the aggressive striker of his past fights. He clearly leveled up his wrestling for this fight, maybe that made him want to test it out and prove he could outwrestle a grappler.
Official Result: Themba Gorimbo def. Ramiz Brahimaj by Unanimous (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
