UFC Tampa: Khabib Dominates, Evans Bows Out On A Low?

In last night’s main event, Rashad Evans felt the full force of Glover Teixeira‘s power and ended the night face down on the canvas.

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he former light-heavyweight champion looked in good shape before a right cross from Teixeira, and a follow up left hand laid Evans out towards the end of the first round. It was a dramatic finish to the main event and a great win for Teixeira, but it’s not the way Evans would have wanted to see – quite possibly – the last fight of his career end.

In the co-main event Rose Namajunas eeked out a very close unanimous decision victory over Tecia Torres. After three rounds of close stand-up action in which both fighters landed some solid kicks throughout, the deciding factor in the fight appeared to be Namajunas’ two takedowns – one of which was at the very end of the third round. Whilst this win will more than likely take Namajunas to a title shot, it was a far from impressive performance, arguably stealing the decision from Torres.

The return of Khabib Nurmagomedov went as well as could be expected against a game Darrell Horcher. Nurmagomedov looked tentative in the initial exchanges with Horcher, but once he landed his first takedown, appeared to settle down before beginning his domination of Horcher. To his credit, Horcher was a game opponent and held on against an onslaught from Nurmagomedov at the end of the first round. But he couldn’t keep it up in the second, with Nurmagomedov walking away with a TKO victory midway through the second round. A great return from the Dagestani and an impressive showing from Horcher, who at the very least deserves another fight in the UFC.

Cub Swanson and Hacran Dias opened up the main card and had a mildly entertaining back-and-forth fight. After a tentative first round from both fighters, Swanson managed to find his groove in the second and third rounds, utilising his superior striking to nullify any offence from Dias. The Brazilian hung in the fight and didn’t give Swanson an easy time of it, but the decision was always going to go Swanson’s way after the last ten minutes.