In what turned out to be an eventful and dramatic evening at ACB 74 in the Austrian capital of Vienna, Sunderland’s Andrew Fisher was crowned victorious against the dangerous Akop Stepanyan, netting the $5000 bonus for the finish in the process. The Englishman climbed to 17-8 and showed his new home promotion just why they signed him.
A game of chess occurred in the first round with Fisher using his jab to full effect whilst effectively countering any attacks coming his way. Stepanyan as always, aimed to be more flashy and attempted numerous spinning attacks. Fisher seemingly did enough in a tentative first round.
The second round saw Fisher become more adventurous with his strikes after beginning to find success with the overhand right in the latter parts of the first round. Fisher continued to work to the head.
Stepanyan was seemingly struggling with an injury, but Fisher didn’t let him off the hook and dropped the Eastern European with a vicious body shot, forcing referee Herb Dean to stop the contest. This sees consecutive impressive victories for Fisher after defeating Nicklas Backstrom last time out.
Former BAMMA champion Rany Saadeh had a debut to forget when he was finished inside the first minute against American Darren Mima.
Mima landed a beautiful 1-2 combination to the head of the German, sending him to the floor with the American followed up with strikes on the floor before he went for the submission.
As a result with 59 seconds gone of round one, Saadeh tapped to the guillotine choke from Mima. This marked Saadeh’s second loss as a professional.
The most sensational performance of the night came from none other than the “Austrian Wonderboy” Ismail Naurdiev who bounced back from his shock defeat to Ismael De Jesus in emphatic fashion.
In Georgi Valentinov, it seemed Naurdiev had a well matched opponent and a real test one fight on from his second loss as a professional. However, Naurdiev finished his opponent in emphatic style.
Three minutes into the opening round, Naurdiev produced a beautiful spinning wheel kick that rocked his opponent, before following up with a crisp combination of strikes, forcing the referee to call a halt to proceedings.
ACB 74 Results
Welterweight contest – Arbi Aguev def. Adam Townsend via decision (Majority) – (Round 3 – 5:00)
Lightweight contest – Musa Khamanaev def. Efrain Escudero via decision (Unanimous) – (Round 3 – 5:00)
Middleweight contest – Piotr Strus def. Nikola Dipchikov via submission (Rear-naked choke) – (Round 3 – 4:59)
Middleweight contest – Abdul-Rakhman Dzhanaev def. Clifford Starks via decision (Majority) – (Round 3 – 5:00)
Welterweight contest – Ismail Naurdiev def. Georgi Valentinov via TKO (Spinning wheel-kick and punches) – (Round 1 – 3:10)
Middleweight contest – Mukhamed Aushev def. Roland Campbal via TKO (Punches) – (Round 1 – 3:25)
Light-heavyweight contest – Thiago Silva def. J. Toledo Canellas via TKO (Punches) – (Round 2 – 4:29)
Featherweight contest – Andrew Fisher def. Akop Stepanyan via TKO (Leg injury) – (Round 2 – 1:01)
Flyweight contest – Darren Mima def. Rany Saadeh via submission (Guillotine) – (Round 1 – 0:59)
Featherweight contest – Lom-Ali Eskijew def. Felipe Cruz via TKO (Knees and punches) – (Round 1 – 1:34)
Welterweight contest – Stanislav Vlasenko def. Dominik Schober via submission (Rear-naked choke) – (Round 2 – 1:28)
Featherweight contest – Otavio Dos Santos def. Attila Korkmaz via decision (Unanimous) – (Round 3 – 5:00)
