The best promotion in the Arabian World always saves the best until last and the penultimate and final contests of another stacked double-header will not disappoint. Let’s dive-in to a pair of pain!
Tashkent Phenom Defends against the Monkey King – The Welterweight Title fight between the Champion, Khotam ‘Big’ Boynazarov and the Challenger, James ‘Goku’ Llontop
There’s takedowns, then there’s Boynazarov takedowns. Probably the most entertaining wrestler in the history of welterweight Warriors wonders, he’s been making quality grapplers look quite ordinary of late. The Uzbek deploys power hooks on the feet and the ground, the latter courtesy of his stupendous takedowns which often wow the crowd with their hangtime. His title win over a veteran opponent like Abdullaev in Abu Dhabi Showdown Week showed his true calibre, displaying the widest of skillsets upon which the world’s eyes were keenly focussed over five rounds. But what an opponent for your first title defence. Though Llontop had a tough UFC run in which he was only finished once and had a razor-split decision go against him, the Peruvian pugilist rebounded by taking the FCC title at the beginning of the year and successfully defending it last month with a second-round finish with the fists. A Dana White Contender Series winner who ran a 12-fight winning streak until Padilla in Vegas, he has nine top-drawer finishes and has never been knocked-out. In fact, he’s only been finished once these past six years and ominously only seems to be hitting his straps this year, being ahead in the scramble and showing confidence in his hands and timing. He worked as a taxi motorcyclist in Lima to pay for his training and evidently will need scant motivation to seize this massive opportunity from the promotional golden-boy and bag another title.
The Two Strikers in Powderkeg Co-Main Event, Magomed Kabardiev and Kiril Gorobets
Tobet Top Team’s entertaining striker Kabardiev is the Naiza lightweight champion, a promotion in which he was undefeated in all five bouts which formed part of a ten-fight winning streak until it snapped almost two years ago in Moscow. The 6ft 1in welter hasn’t competed since then but still gets traction for his spinning back elbow KO of the highly-regarded Brazilian, Valmir Lázaro in ‘22. Mostly keeping it on the feet with a storied Pankration career, his rangy kickboxing combines a lot of feints with eclectic yet effective combinations and though his takedown defence isn’t the best, he has a fast scramble to ensure he keeps it standing. His opponent, Gorobets was booked against Jak Jumaev at UAEW 54 but an unfortunate injury gave his Tiger Muay Thai teammate and sparring partner Shakhmar Sadygov the opportunity to take his place as well as the sensational split decision win. A Pankration World Champ from Ukraine based in Phuket, he had a tough ONE debut against the multiple-title winning Martin Nguyen but returned to put on an absolute clinic against Bruno Pucci in which he displayed far better grappling, and in fact remains unsubmitted to this day. He took the WWFC belt in ‘19 with a Peruvian Necktie, a victory which formed part of a nine-fight streak before being poorly matched against Nguyen. This will be an absolute barnburner if it stays on the feet but you can guarantee that Gorobets will look to dominate the exchanges on the canvas.
Take a look at our previous post which breaks down the four fighters appearing at the top of the UAE Warriors 61 main card where Ali AlQaisi and Sylvester Chipfumbu both look to make history!
