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The first UFC event of February 2024 went down last night at the Las Vegas APEX, and in truth, it wasn’t all that memorable.
UFC Fight Night: Roman Dolidze vs. Nassourdine Imavov featured a handful of fun finishes and a couple of decent brawls, but it’s unlikely people will be talking about it for long going forward.
Despite this, here are the five best moments from last night’s UFC event.
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#5. Nassourdine Imavov edges an odd headliner after a dominant first round
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There wasn’t much fanfare around last night’s middleweight headliner between Nassourdine Imavov and Roman Dolidze, even though both men are ranked inside the UFC’s top 15 at 185 pounds.
In the end, the fight went all five rounds and was passable at best. It probably won’t elevate the winner, Imavov up the ladder any higher, nor will it see Dolidze’s stock truly plummet.
However, had a dominant first round ended with Imavov scoring a stoppage, then things could’ve been different. ‘The Sniper’ looked phenomenal during that first stanza, and Dolidze’s incredible toughness alone kept him in there.
The French fighter wobbled the Georgian with a right hand, dropped him with a flurry that included a nasty knee to the gut, and then came close to finishing him off on the ground with an armbar.
However, Dolidze managed to gut it out, meaning that the fight went on and ended up including a bizarre fourth round. The round saw Imavov hurt Dolidze with a blatantly illegal soccer kick before getting into a shouting match with former foe Chris Curtis.
Where both guys go from here remains to be seen, but Imavov’s outstanding first round was definitely one of last night’s big highlights.
#4. Themba Gorimbo scores an epic knockout of Pete Rodriguez
Last night’s welterweight tilt between Themba Gorimbo and Pete Rodriguez was largely flying under the radar coming into the event, with Rodriguez taking the bout on late notice.
However, South Africa’s Gorimbo gave the fans something to talk about today by switching the lights off on his unfortunate foe after just 32 seconds of the opening round.
A huge right hand in the early going basically starched Rodriguez, with the shot sounding even more brutal thanks to the largely quiet APEX crowd. Gorimbo did follow up, but he honestly didn’t need to after such a violent punch.
Can ‘The Answer’ now emulate the man he shares his nickname with – UFC legend Frankie Edgar – by climbing into title contention? It seems doubtful, but he is on a two-fight win streak and should be able to get back into the octagon sooner rather than later.
That, as well as the $50k bonus he won last night, should be good enough for him for now. Overall, his knockout was undoubtedly one of the moments of the night.
#3. Renato Moicano and Drew Dober almost live up to the hype in a bloodbath
Coming into last night’s event, it felt almost certain that lightweight action heroes Renato Moicano and Drew Dober would win the bonus award for the Fight of the Night. It also seemed unlikely that their clash would last the distance.
In the end, both of those ideas were proven wrong. The fight went all three rounds, and a back-and-forth flyweight bout between Charles Johnson and Azat Maksum took the UFC’s $50k bonus.
However, there was definitely an argument that Dober and Moicano produced the night’s most entertaining fight overall, even if neither man scored a finish.
Dober had his Brazilian opponent hurt on the feet with big shots on numerous occasions, and in the second round, he landed a takedown and followed it up by bloodying Moicano up with some brutal shots.
Moicano, though, was consistently able to take Dober down and found several good positions from the top to work him over with a steady diet of ground-and-pound and ultimately fruitless submission attempts.
In the end, the Brazilian came away with his hand raised and should wind up with a marquee fight next time out after his efforts.
Overall, while this fight didn’t quite live up to the expectations that it could be an all-time classic, it definitely delivered the goods – even if the UFC brass didn’t quite agree.
#2. Randy Brown delivers a wicked knockout and remains one of the UFC’s most underrated
There’s probably an argument to suggest that Randy Brown is one of the UFC’s most underrated fighters right now. A veteran of the octagon since 2016, ‘Rude Boy’ came into his fight with Muslim Salikhov on the back of a run of five wins in six fights.
Despite this, many fans felt that ‘The King of Kung Fu’ would be able to overwhelm the Jamaican standing, even though he’d only been knocked out twice before in his lengthy career.
It turned out that Brown was the one who scored the highlight reel knockout. He switched the lights off on Salikhov in the first round, earning himself a nice $50k bonus in the process.
After a largely back-and-forth opening portion of the fight, ‘Rude Boy’ melted his Russian foe with a brutal one-two and then – largely thanks to a gaffe from referee Kerry Hatley – had to follow up to seal the deal.
This was Brown’s first knockout win since way back in 2019, but in essence, it was probably worth waiting for. For its sheer brutality, this was the best finish on last night’s main card.
#1. Molly McCann saves her UFC career in her first bout as a strawweight
While some UFC fans who find her irritating might disagree, the best moment on offer last night came on the preliminary card, as Molly McCann arguably saved her career with a tremendous showing.
‘Meatball’ had received some hype after scoring back-to-back highlight reel knockouts as a flyweight, but a pair of bad losses at 125 pounds had her on the brink of losing her spot on the roster.
McCann had other ideas, though, and decided to drop to 115 pounds, hoping that not giving up size to her foes anymore would reignite her stalling UFC career.
Based on her showing last night, she might’ve been spot-on with her assessment.
The native of Liverpool basically bullied opponent Diana Belbita, eventually stunning her with a spinning back elbow before taking her down, punishing her on the ground, and tapping her out with an armbar.
Strawweight is actually a more loaded division than flyweight is right now, so hopes of a title run for ‘Meatball’ might be premature, but based on this showing, she should be a dangerous prospect in her new division.
If nothing else, this was a hugely entertaining performance from her and definitely stood out as the best moment of the night.
