What’s next for the fighters who opened the UFC 308 main card, Sharaputdin Magomedov and Armen Petrosyan?
After a back-and-forth bout ended with one of the most unique knockouts you will ever see, Shara ‘Bullet’will carry his creative striking with him into the UFC middleweight rankings.
He now sits at #14, one spot above Michel Pereira and one below ‘Fluffy’ Hernandez. With four straight UFC wins and an undefeated 14-0 record so far, Magomedov is one of the brightest new products in the division.
Much like Alex Pereira before him, the UFC will likely continue to keep Shara away from wrestlers after he conceded three takedowns to each of Bruno Silva and Michal Oleksiejczuk, neither of whom are known as grapplers.
Fighters like Jack Hermansson and Roman Dolidze would give him enormous trouble on the ground, but the #11 contender is a Brazilian power puncher who has shot only four takedowns in his ten UFC fights.
I am, of course, talking about Paulo Costa. Costa achieved notoriety online for his irreverent style of expressing himself, which matched well with his violent performances in the cage. He is akin to Shara himself, who is a good fighter but initially drew the notice of fans because he only has one eye and calls himself a pirate.
I do not believe either man has a realistic chance to win a world championship, but both are fun fighters who produce performance bonuses at will. Pencil this fight in as the ‘Fight of the Night’ of whatever card it may end up featured on.
As for the victim of Shara’s unique double spinning backfist, Armen Petrosyan, he is now 3-3 in the UFC and a matchup against the last man who lost to ‘Sharabullet’ before him makes sense.
Michal Oleksiejczuk is a striking specialist much like Petrosyan, but his chaotic style of swinging big hooks and uppercuts would stand in stark contrast to the Armenian’s technical kickboxing.
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