Tech-KREP FC: Prime Selection Finals 2016 delivered an action packed card from The Basket Hall in Krasnodar, Russia on Saturday afternoon and was shown live on UFC Fight Pass.
The main event saw Salim Touahri (10-1) score a devastating knockout over Bayzet Khatkhohu (5-3) in a Welterweight bout. The fight was not for a Tech-KREP Prime Selection belt as Khatkhohu had stepped in short notice for the injured Ukrainian Yaroslav Amosov (17-0).
Salim started round one by landing a right hand, which hurt Bayzet and forced him to go for a takedown. In Salim’s guard, Bayzet could do very little and landed minimal shots with the referee stepping in to stand them back up after a period of inactivity from both. The Polish fighter then went after Bayzet marching him down before scoring a beautiful counter left hook which echoed around the arena on contact with his opponent’s jaw and immediately folded Bayzet to give him a walk off knockout victory in the first round.
In the co-main event, popular local fighter Goga Shamatava (9-4) took on debuting fighter Davronbek Khamitkul (0-1) in one-sided Bantamweight contest.
Fellow Russian Davronbek looked out of his depth on his short debut, getting caught in a clinch where Goga landed knees to the body and was helpless as he ate combinations on the way out. Goga followed that up with the finishing blow, a big knee to the face, for a first round KO.
In the Heavyweight final, Arkadiy Lisin (3-1) escaped a tight ankle lock from Abdulbasir Medzhidov (3-2) to battle back and win by first round KO.
After the aforementioned escape, the fighters got back to their feet where Arkadiy seemed to have the edge. A few good combinations dropped Abdulbasir who was then hit by a massive hammer blow when on his back and turned away as Lisin rained in some follow up shots until the referee stopped the fight.
At Middleweight, Zalim Ayubov (4-1) took a close decision victory over Sergey Yaskovets (2-2) in a fight that could have went either way.
Zalim scored takedowns In every round and had long periods of positional control as Sergey had a clear advantage in the stand up and was continuously troubling Zalim with big shots whenever the opportunities presented themselves. Zalim’s smothering ground game was enough for the judges’ decision however this seemed harsh on Sergey who relentlessly punished his opponent with hard strikes in the second and third leaving Zalim wobbly on more than one occasion.
Kiamrian Abbasov (8-2) secured a submission victory over David Barkhudryan (2-1) with a Guillotine in the third round of the Tech-KREP Prime Welterweight final.
The Kyrgyzstan fighter played to his strengths keeping the fight on the ground for a large portion of each round and limiting Barkhudryan’s striking. This grinding style paid off when Barkhudryan was forced into a mistake giving his neck to Abbasov who secured in the submission for the win.
In what was surely fight of the night, Azamat Kerefov (5-0) put in a wonderful performance to beat Aren Akopyan (3-1) by decision in the Bantamweight final.
Both fighters started patiently but threw caution to the wind when they both planted their feet and traded big swinging blows in the centre of the ring. The crowd went wild as these men kept up the pace for two and a half rounds with Akopyan at first having the advantage hurting Kerefov with big knees to start the second round.
The momentum quickly swung in Kerefov’s favour though as he had Akopyan against the ropes and was landing hard blows to end the round. Kerefov started round 3 just as he had finished the second, stalking a tiring Akopyan who desperately went for the takedown but ended up on bottom and holding on as Kerefov stayed on top landing shots to the liver and head until the end of the fight to take the judges’ decision victory.
In the earlier bouts, young Bantamweight prospect Edgar Okhtov (2-0) maintained his unbeaten record against Bislan Sheketel (0-2) by submission within the first two minutes of the fight winning via a nasty looking armbar.
Overall, Tech-KREP FC once again put on an exciting and enjoyable event and are a welcome addition to the UFC Fight Pass schedule.
