Magomed Gaziazullo and Brendon Ribeiro at the official weigh-in for UFC Saudi Arabia Photo Credit: Youtube/UFC
Unbeaten light heavyweight and Contender Series winner Magomed Gaziaslov made his promotional debut at UFC Saudi Arabia against Brazil’s Brendon Ribeiro.
Like Gaziaslov, Ribeiro also came to UFC via the 2023 edition of Dana White’s Contender Series but lost his debut to Mingyan Zhang.
Ribeiro switched stances and landed some low and high kicks early on. The Brazilian then traded blows and tried to go for a takedown, but Gaziaslov blatantly grabbed the fence. The referee stopped the bout and warned Gaziaslov, forcing him to return his knees to the mat, but any momentum Ribeiro had been building up was halted, at least temporarily.
Brendon Ribeiro returned to wrestling moments later, clinching and applying a body lock, briefly dragging Gaziaslov down. When he got up, with Gaziaslov’s back against the fence, he turned around and landed punches and knees to his opponent’s thighs. But when he returned to the center, the complexion of the fight changed. Ribeiro landed another low kick, just as he had earlier in the frame. Gaziaslov responded quickly, limping and clearly in trouble. He scored a crucial takedown to give him some breathing room, but the round ended a few minutes later.
In the second round, Ribeiro attempted a guillotine about a minute in and nearly got one, but Gaziaslov managed to defend and eventually break free from the mounted guillotine, forcing Ribeiro to the side. Gaziaslov then got on top in half guard, which was also key given the damage he’d done to his leg in the first round.
DC couldn’t believe Gaziyaslov had made it out! 😱
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— UFC (@ufc) June 22, 2024
Ribeiro eventually made it to the fence, but by the time he got there there was just a minute left in the round. As the third round began, Ribeiro found himself in a similar situation, getting a takedown about 30 seconds into the round. Gaziaslov was on top, in side control, and again in the center of the cage. Ribeiro went to his knees and took a few blows, then powered up, only to be dragged down again.
Magomed Gaziaslov put pressure on Ribeiro and pushed him upwards, leaving him unable to get up and collapsing to the canvas again at the end of the bout. The most surprising thing about the score sheet, however, was that one judge scored the fight 28-28, while the other two judged the victory in favor of Gaziaslov.
Official result: Magomed Gaziaslov defeats Brendon Ribeiro by majority decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-28)
