Another UFC tournament continues in Abu Dhabi. Traditionally, there are many Russian fighters on the card: for example, the light heavyweight representative Azamat Murzakanov fought in his fight. He had a fight against Alonzo Menifield.
The 35-year-old native of Kabardino-Balkaria has been competing in professional mixed martial arts since 2010. At the same time, five whole years have passed since the official debut and victory over Anzor Nakhimov and the next fight of Azamat – such a pause came already at the beginning of his career. Then Murzakanov began to act much more actively, scored five early victories in a year and entered the ACB League, where he appeared on the poster of the fight between Petr Yan and Magomed Magomedov. After the ACB, Azamat stormed foreign leagues, scored two victories in the Brave CF and received an invitation to Dana White’s Candidate Series, in which the Russian competed only a year and a half later.
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There he finished in the first round against Matheus Scheffel and received a full contract. In the UFC, Murzakanov had three fights and won all of them. But at the same time, Azamat does not perform as often as he himself, the UFC management and the fans would like. Azamat ran away from the fight with Volkan Oezdemir, who could have promoted him in the ratings, and ran away from the fight with Khalil Rountree. Azamat fought his last fight almost a year and a half ago, won it, but broke his arm and was again forced to remain inactive. Murzakanov has a 13-0 record in MMA, but is still not in the top 15 of the division, also due to rare performances.
His opponent was American Alonzo Menifield. Alonzo made his professional debut in 2015 and immediately left for Bellator. With a 3-0 record, he entered Dana White’s Challenge Series, won, but did not receive a contract. Alonzo scored two more victories in the LFA league, Dana White’s streak returned once again, and this time the knockout in 8 seconds impressed the UFC bosses, who brought him to the promotion.
In his first fight in the league, he knocked out Paul Craig, after which he suffered two defeats: Devin Clark and Ovince Saint Preux. However, Menifield continued to play in the league. In his last six fights he has a record of 5-1, and in total in his career Alonzo had 20 fights, in which he won 15.
Azamat Murzakanov
Photo: Josh Hedges/Getty Images
Alonzo started the fight with pressure, but was met with counterattacks from the Russian. The fighters aimed at the start of the fight and felt out the required distance. At the end of the second minute, Murzakanov landed a strong knee to the head that shook the American. Alonzo struggled at the net, Azamat tried to finish his rival, but Menifield survived and managed to recover. After a short clinch, the fighters moved back to the center of the octagon, where the Russian met Alonzo with a good two, and again the American experienced problems, including Menifield with a cut above the eye.
Azamat started the second round with a hard knee, but Alonzo kept taking the punches. The Russian interrupted on his arms, Menifield took over but kept pressing, albeit without any special punches. Alonso tried to get the better of the Russian, but didn’t get much of an advantage. The fighters met again in the center of the octagon and Azamat finished the fight in his favor. Murzakanov rocked the American with a Pereira-style left hook, then added a few more side kicks and Alonzo collapsed to the ground. Azamat managed to land a couple of final blows before the referee intervened. Azamat Murzakanov’s brilliant early win is an excellent return for the Russian to the cage. We can only hope that Azamat will revel in his performances more often and can soon have serious fights.
Murzakanov often experiences health problems:
He has not lost, but his UFC career is in jeopardy. A professional could repeat Mokaev’s fate.
“I haven’t been performing for a long time, but now I’m back. My question to the league is: ‘I have a 14-0 record, does that bother anyone? That someone from the top 5 tries to beat me. The opponent today turned out to be strong, he gave up a lot, but he remained standing. Thank you for all your support. And one more thing: I don’t like being put in the preliminaries,’” Azamat Murzakanov said after the fight.
