UFC bantamweight Said Nurmagomedov made his return to the octagon after more than a year away and welcoming him back was Vinicius Oliveira at UFC Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
Nurmagomedov (18-3) dealt with a series of injuries and withdrawals from opponents before finally making it to the cage with Oliveira. He came into the fight having gone 4-1 in his last five with wins over Cody Stamann, Douglas Silva de Andrade, and Muin Gafurov.
Oliveira (21-3) looked to stay undefeated in his UFC run coming in with wins over Ricky Simon and Benardo Sopaj.
Round 1 Nurmagomedov came in with some fire as he landed shots on Oliveira including a spinning back kick that rocked the Brazilian. Oliveria wasn’t sitting on his hands he let them fly including some nasty and quick kicks up top. A quick eye poke stopped the action, but Nurmagomedov didn’t take much rest.
Soon as the ref said go Oliveira went to work landing kicks up top, but then Nurmagomedov landing a nasty flying knee to the chin that force Oliveira to shoot. Getting the takedown slowed the action, and the round ended on the fence with Oliveira landing knees to the legs.
Round 2 much slower pace to start this round with Oliveira working spinning back kicks to the body and Nurmagomedov throwing that lead head kick. Both men tried takedowns, but Oliveira scored his holding Nurmagomedov down for about 40 seconds before they made their way back to the stand up.
Nurmagomedov scored another couple of takedowns, but Oliveira proved to be very difficult to hold down. At this point Nurmagomedov was clearly tired and Oliveira tried to take advantage.
Round 3 Nurmagomedov was clearly tired, but Oliveira kept pointing to his ribs in the corner so both men clearly compromised going into the third round. During an exchange Nurmagomedov slipped and Oliveira took advantage getting on top and working his strikes
Nurmegomedov was able to get ahold of a single leg, but Oliveira expertly kept him on the defensive on the ground. When they finally came to the feet both men threw what they could, but they were both clearly very tired.
The rest of the round Nurmagomedov tried desperately to take Oliveira down, but couldn’t do it. The fight ended on the ground, and the judges got another fight to score.
Official Result: Vinicius Oliveira def. Said Nurmagomedov via Unanimous Decision (29-28×3)
