Another devastating illegal knee has landed in MMA, this time courtesy of BRAVE CF’s [autotag]Ali Guliev[/autotag].
Less than a week after Petr Yan lost his bantamweight title by disqualification for striking Aljamain Sterling with an illegal knee at UFC 259, we have another unfortunate situation that took place at BRAVE CF 47 in Bahrain.
But things panned out a little differently in this particular incident. While shucking off a takedown attempt, Azerbaijan’s Guliev struck a downed [autotag]Rana Rudra[/autotag] with a big knee that clocked him right on the chin. Rudra had both knees on the ground and the strike was clearly illegal. Referee Dec Larkin immediately deducted two points from Guliev – but Rudra decided to continue fighting.
Fight 3
🇦🇿 Ali Guliev (6-0) – Props to Singh for trying to continue but too outmatched here. pic.twitter.com/jZ8fkFX2Xd
— Dusty Andrews (@Fight_Expert) March 11, 2021
The decision to continue didn’t work out for Rudra, who was visibly hurt and not fully recovered yet. Guliev easily defended a Rudra takedown and proceeded to rain down punches on him. Guliev decided to let Rudra up, but Rudra was slow to get back on his feet, which prompted the referee to stop the fight.
Props to Rudra for choosing to continue, but perhaps he was a little too compromised to keep going and it ultimately cost him. Guliev improved to 6-0 and was awarded the first-round TKO win.
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