A fight that started promisingly quickly turned to disappointment for Abdul Razak Alhassan.
The 38-year-old Alhassan, a product of the Elevation Fight Team, staggered his opponent, Cody Brundage, with an elbow strike after blocking a takedown during their middleweight bout at UFC on ESPN 59 in Denver on Saturday night. Alhassan landed an elbow to the back of Brundage’s head during a flurry of attacks, earning a warning from referee Dan Miragliotta, and the bout was stopped as “Judo Thunder” continued to land strikes that the veteran official deemed illegal.
Ultimately, the bout was declared void because Brundage was unconscious and unable to continue, a decision that was bitter for Alhassan, who was close to calling the bout off even without the foul. Alhassan responded to the decision on his Instagram Story:
“I’m sorry to the fans, to everyone involved. I really wanted this fight. I really wanted this win. I really wanted this fight,” he said. “Right now I have so much anger and energy inside me and I wanted to use it and I couldn’t. It’s a crazy day.” [Donald] Trump got shot and I got robbed.
“He definitely could have continued the fight, but he decided to stay a gun and didn’t want to fight anymore. That’s the reality. I wish him a speedy recovery.”
Alhassan began his UFC career by winning four of his first five fights, all by first-round knockout or technical knockout, but has since gone 2-5 with the aforementioned no-contest being his most recent.
