UFC middleweight Cody Brundage has seen a lot in his three years in the UFC taking on some big names, but at UFC Atlanta he gets a big heavy-hitter in the form of Mansur Abdul-Malik on Saturday night.
Brundage (11-6) came into the fight off a first round TKO victory over Julian Marquez in March. The Factory X product hold victories over Zach Reese, Jacob Malkoun and Tresean Gore to name a few.
Abdul-Malik (8-0) is arguably the hottest prospect at 185-pounds today. After a violent and impressive victory at DWCS in 2024 he scored two consecutive knockout finishes coming into UFC Atlanta.
Round 1 Brundage came out firing kicks low and high. Abdul-Malik stayed patient and worked his stance switching looking for an angle. Abdul-Malik went in with a right hand which Brundage saw, dodged, and landed his own counter.
Brundage continued to work the calf kicks while trying to stay out of range of his opponents attacks. Crowd booed for a good chunk of the round. Abdul-Malik landed a clean up kick to the chin of Brundage which he just ate.
Round ended with Abdul-Malik trying a flying knee which Brundage responded to with a two-strike combo.
Round 2 even after the feel-out round both men were wary of attacking. Brundage continued to work kicks to which Abdul-Malik didn’t really respond to.
Abdul-Malik landed a sneaky right hand on Brundage which he followed up with a body kick. Brundage fired back some counters, but the fight felt like it would begin to heat up at this point.
The rest of the round was lackluster and the crowd let the fighters know it.
Round 3 the two fighters came out like mad men firing off like they heard the crowd at the end of the second. Finally the fight ended with Abdul-Malik landed a flying knee which landed and ended the fight.
The replay showed that, when Abdul-Malik rushed in, there was a clash of heads. Due to that the fight was scored up to that point as a technical decision.
Official Result: Mansur Abdul-Malik def. Cody Brundage via Technical Decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
