The always-colorful Abdul Razak Alhassan appeared more focused on Joaquin Buckley than fellow Denverite Cody Brundage ahead of their middleweight showdown at UFC Denver on Saturday.
Alhassan was quick to show his anger at Buckley, and current 185lb champ Dricus Du Plessis over comments about being the “real” African fighter in the UFC– though he promised to take those frustrations, and others, out on Brundage, who was last seen being dominated by Bo Nickal.
The fight began with Brundage throwing a couple of punches before he leaped into a frantic takedown attempt. As the two fighters bounced off the cage, Alhassan landed a powerful short punch that stopped Brundage mid takedown attempt, dropping him face down on the canvas, momentarily. Brundage went into full panic mode scrambling around and taking wild and heavy shots from his opponent. Cody was able to finally find a single leg, but Alhassan continued to rain down shots with multiple hitting the side and back of the head of his opponent. Referee Dan Miragliotta paused the fight 37 seconds in due to strikes to the back of the head.
A dizzy Brundage eventually told the cage side physician that he was not able to continue after some time, much to the dismay of the extremely fired up Alhassan.
Official Result: Abdul Razak Alhassan vs. Cody Brundage ends in a No Contest (accidental blows to back of the head), Round 1, 0:37
