Shamil Gaziev suffered his second knockout loss in a row in a wild clash at UFC Perth.
This Saturday, the premier MMA promotion returned to Australia for UFC Perth, headlined by a welterweight clash between Jack Della Maddalena and Carlos Prates.
The main card was kicked off by back-to-back heavyweight fights, the first one being between Tai Tuivasa and Louie Sutherland, in which Tuivasa suffered his seventh loss in a row.
Following that was a clash between number 14 ranked heavyweight Shamil Gaziev, who was looking to return to the win column against ‘The Balkan Bear’, Brando Pericic.
Is it finally time for Tai Tuivasa to call it a day on his UFC career?
Tuivasa suffered a record-extending seventh straight loss in front of his home crowd in Perth😬
Pericic folds Gaziev after crazy two rounds
From the opening round, it was clear that neither of the heavyweights wanted to waste any time, looking to get out of there quickly.
Pericic landed some heavy kicks early on in the fight as Gaziev looked to change levels and take down the Australian contender, who made it back to his feet pretty quickly.
The pair then traded some huge shots in the center of the Octagon midway through the round, with Pericic snapping Gaziev’s head back several times.
The Dagestani ended up catching Pericic with just over 30 seconds left in the round but Pericic managed to fight his way back into the round, ending what was an insane back-and-forth opening round.
Again in round two, ‘The Balkan Bear’ looked to land heavy leg kicks on Gaziev as the ranked heavyweight just continued to march forward.
The 36-year-old began to clearly fatigue as he began to retreat after once again being caught with a barrage of punches, with his mouth wide open.
Despite that, Pericic also seemed to slow down before once again exploding into action with just over a minute left of the round, landing two huge right hands, finally sinking Gaziev.
The Australian contender will now likely take Gaziev’s spot in the top 15 of the heavyweight rankings, and following his win, he called for a fight on the upcoming UFC Serbia card.
Earlier this week, the promotion announced that for the first time ever, they will land in Belgrade, Serbia on August 1.
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