Lightweights Khabib Nurmagomedov and Thiago Tavares kicked off the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fight season with the first bout on the UFC on FX 7 main card TONIGHT (Jan. 19, 2013) from the Ibirapuera Arena in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
After an early feeling out process, Nurmagomedov clipped Tavares with an uppercut that dropped the Brazilian. He appeared out before he hit the canvas, but "The Eagle" continued his vicious onslaught regardless. Nurmagomedov must have unleashed about 10 elbows before he grabbed Tavares' unconscious face and delivered about another five unanswered shots before referee Dan Miragliotta finally decided to step in and stop it.
It was a straight up savage assault that took less than two minutes; even though it should have ended much quicker. C'mon, Dan.
Tavares, who after 13 appearances still can't manage to win more than two consecutive bouts, was fortunately alive and able to make it to hear the official decision read; however, it's safe to say that he'll have quite a headache in the morning.
Yikes.
With the win, Nurmagomedov keeps his perfect record intact (19-0), and three straight UFC wins (Kamal Shalorus and Gleison Tibau are the others) the Russian is looking like quite a force to be reckoned with in the 155-pound division in 2013.
Look out!
For complete results and blow-by-blow coverage of UFC on FX 7: "Belfort vs. Bisping" click here.