In the end, Saturday’s UFC Abu Dhabi card delivered, but one main card fight outshined both its main and co-main events.
That would be the middleweight tilt between Dagestan, Russia’s Shara Bullet (Sharabutdin Magomedov) and Quebec, Canada’s Marc-Andre Barriault.
When the UFC booked the two middleweight strikers against one another, the matchmakers clearly knew what they were doing.
“Bullet” has climbed the UFC’s middleweight division rather quickly, but was handed his first career loss by Michael “Venom” Page last time out. Rather than give Magomedov another elusive, tricky karate-style fighter, they opted to go with the “Power Bar” from Canada, a former double-champ in TKO. Known more as a brawler (or at least a dirty boxer who likes fighting in close), the end result was a contrasting clash of striking styles that saw both men hurt the other – though it was Shara Bullet coming away with the victory after 15 minutes.
Not surprisingly, both men also came away with Fight of the Night honors at UFC Abu Dhabi, and an extra $50,000 to their names.
Performance of the Night bonuses at UFC Abu Dhabi went to Steven Nguyen and Muslim Salikhov. The oldest welterweight in the company at 41, Salikhov flatlined Carlos Leal early in their fight. Nguyen took a little longer against Mohammad Yahya, but knocked the “UAE Warrior” down a record-setting seven times before the fight ended between rounds due to massive swelling under Yahya’s eye. Nguyen, who turned up on Dana White’s Contender Series three times before jumping to the UFC, picked up his first victory with the promotion in the process.
