Petr Yan experienced the hype last night (Saturday July 11, 2020) at UFC 251 live on ESPN + PPV from Flash Forum on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, when the Russian fighter belatedly defeated the former featherweight champion Jose Aldo to win the vacant UFC bantamweight title. The official finish was a fifth round TKO (punches).
Yan landed a big power shot halfway through the first one that injured Aldo, but the former UFC champion responded with a whipped kick that knocked the Russian down. Yan managed to regain control towards the end of the heat when he found himself at the top of the heavy punches. In round 2, Aldo returned to the scoreboards with hard knocks to Yan’s lead leg. Yan continued to advance with chips, but Aldo was able to continue scoring with hits and blows to the body.
The third saw Aldo doing more work on the body as Yan started to slow down. Aldo injured the Russian along the cage, but Yan eventually recovered. Aldo would catch a few hard punches in the head near the end of the frame as Yan started to heat up. Aldo returned to his body shots in the fourth but Yan was there again to retaliate with combinations up. Yan’s pressure seemed to tire Aldo as his exit diminished, allowing the Russian to shoot him and strike guard.
In the fifth and last lap, Yan exploded under the feet to make Aldo fall on the canvas. Yan followed suit with hard ground and a pound accompanied by elbows that really started to blow up Aldo. The referee refused to stop the fight while Aldo was hiding and Yan was unloading everything in the bank. In the end, Aldo could not defend anything and the fight was finally stopped.
Discover the video extracts below with the kind permission of the UFC / ESPN.
For full UFC 251 results and coverage, click here.
