Edson Barboza defeated Makwan Amirkhani in the co-main event at UFC Fight Night in Abu Dhabi on Sunday morning, while British heavyweight prospect Tom Aspinall added to his burgeoning reputation with a second successive victory in the promotion.
Brazilian Barboza knocked down Amirkhani twice in the second round at Flash Forum to eventually take the bout by unanimous decision, 30-26, 30-27, 29-28.
Meanwhile, Aspinall took out stand-in Alan Baudot with a TKO in the first round, a little less than three months after announcing his arrival in the UFC with a 45-second knockout during the inaugural Fight Island in July. He moves to 9-2 in MMA.
“I felt the fight was good, I felt that my performance was OK, could have been better,” the Englishman said afterwards. “I was stepping in a little bit too close, but I’m still learning, so I’m going to make mistakes in there. Luckily, I didn’t get the consequences of my mistakes, so everything went smooth, thank God.
“It was a lot easier this time, but I didn’t find it too difficult the first time to be honest. It’s not different than any other fight, at the end of the day, I’ve got to get in there and fight a massive guy who is looking to take my head off, every time, whether I’m fighting in the UFC or on a local show, it doesn’t matter. I’m fighting a big, dangerous guy, so I’m nervous every time.
“I’d like to fight –late dropout] Sergey Spivak because I did a full training camp for him and I fought and won and he’s without a fight now. The next time the UFC comes to Fight Island, we should get that on for sure.”
Elsewhere on the main card, Ilia Topuria defeated Youssef Zalal via unanimous decision, Dricus Du Plessis won on debut by seeing off Markus Perez via a first-round knockout, while MarcinTybura took a unanimous-decision victory against Ben Rothwell.
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UFC Fight Night 5 - in pictures
