JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – [autotag]Aleksei Oleinik[/autotag] beat Fabricio Werdum with a split decision Saturday on the preliminary card at UFC 249 in Jacksonville, Fla.
Take a look inside the fight with Oleinik, who won a decision for the first time in nearly 10 years at Bellator 26. All the rest of his wins since then have been submissions.
Result: Aleksei Oleinik def. Fabricio Werdum via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Updated records: Oleinik (59-13-1 MMA, 8-4 UFC), Werdum (23-9-1 MMA, 11-6 UFC)
Key stat: Werdum landed three takedowns, but Oleinik outstruck him 149-70.
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Oleinik on being a small heavyweight
“I am one of the smallest heavyweights. Today, my weight was (225 pounds), which is small. There are some big guys like Greg Hardy and Francis Ngannou. If I have very good technique, I might not still win because they are big and strong. But, I’m still here, I’m still in UFC, the best of the best promotions in the world, and I’m not last in this promotion.”
Oleinik on what he wants next
“This means a lot for me because you can fight with one guy, two guys, 10 guys – but not a name. If you only fight people with no name, you will have no name yourself. If you fight with big names, with legends of mixed martial arts like Alistair Overeem, Mark Hunt, like Fabricio Werdum, you will go to the highest rankings and get bigger and bigger names too. If you want to be a legend, you have to fight with legends.”
To hear more from Oleinik, check out the video of the full post-fight interview above.
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