Light-weight champion Islam Makhachev efficiently defended his title for a 3rd time towards former interim titleholder Dustin Poirier within the UFC 302 foremost occasion final Saturday. The title bout earned ‘Struggle of the Evening’ honors.
Two of the judges had the combat tied after 4 rounds. Poirier was capable of fend off most of Makhachev’s takedown makes an attempt after the opening spherical conserving the match on their toes. Whereas Makhachev persistently regarded to get the combat to the bottom, he wasn’t outmatched within the putting division.
Most identified for his grappling prowess with 12 submission wins, Makhachev is not precisely a fish out of water on the subject of putting. 5 of his 26 wins have been by knockout. He stopped former featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski with a head kick adopted by punches in his earlier combat heading into the UFC 302 title bout towards Poirier.
UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley believes Makhachev’s putting is essentially underrated. “Islam is underrated putting,” O’Malley mentioned on his YouTube channel. “He was ripping some candy combos.”
The title loss could have been Poirier’s final octagon efficiency. Having misplaced three title fights, Poirier will go down as arguably the best UFC fighter by no means to carry win UFC gold.
UFC 302 happened on the Prudential Middle in Newark, New Jersey. The light-weight title bout between Makhachev and Poirier headlined the pay-per-view occasion. The occasion marked the combat promotion’s tenth occasion in Newark.
