Murtazali Magomedov announced himself in a big way at UFC Fight Night 279, submitting Melsik Baghdasaryan in the first round with a rare twister at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas.
The finish marked just the fourth twister in UFC history and pushed Magomedov’s record to 11-0 in MMA and 11-0 in the UFC, while Baghdasaryan dropped to 8-4 in MMA and 3-3 in the UFC.
Magomedov credited a familiar name for the technique. “This exact twister was shown to me by a brother of mine, Askar Askarov,” he said. “He was the one who taught me this specific move. I started training it and training it and training it, and eventually it started working in practice.”
“In the fight itself, once I took his back, it was on autopilot. I saw it, and I knew I was going to (get the twister). He was here in Vegas about a month ago, and this is what we worked on,” Magomedov added.
Looking ahead, Magomedov made it clear he wants to stay busy and make noise at 145 pounds. “I want to be active and fight every three, four months,” he said. “The featherweight division is very interesting, but now we don't have big names. I think I can be a new highlight. I have 11 wins, 11 finishes, and I've just started to show my skills and techniques.”
Magomedov was making his UFC debut after a first-round knockout on DWCS this past season. Askar Askarov went 3-1-1 in the UFC and was released after weight issues, and has a UFC win over former flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja.
