Rafael Fiziev gave his dwelling followers the ending they’d been ready for.
Headlining UFC Baku, “Ataman” delivered a spectacular second-round knockout of rising Mexican standout Manuel Torres, snapping his current skid and sending the partisan crowd right into a frenzy on the Nationwide Gymnastics Area in Azerbaijan.
The opening spherical was fought at a blistering tempo, with each lightweights prepared to face within the pocket and commerce. Fiziev combined up his assault early, touchdown kicks and even stunning Torres with a well timed takedown.
“El Loco” shortly returned to his ft and located moments of success of his personal, catching Rafael Fiziev with a clear punch throughout an entertaining back-and-forth trade.
Regardless of Torres ending the spherical with a pointy jab, the momentum shifted dramatically as soon as the second body started. Simply seconds into the spherical, Fiziev unleashed a spinning again kick that crashed into Torres and despatched him stumbling backward.
Sensing his alternative, the Azerbaijani favourite instantly poured on the stress with a barrage of punches, connecting with uppercuts and hooks that dropped his opponent to the canvas.
A couple of follow-up strikes later, the referee stepped in to wave off the competition simply 15 seconds into Spherical 2.
With the end, Rafael Fiziev improves to 8-5 contained in the Octagon and 14-5 as an expert. The victory additionally ends a rough run in which “Ataman” had gone simply 1-4 in his earlier 5 outings and marks a profitable rebound from his loss to Mauricio Ruffy at UFC 325 earlier this yr.
