UFC Louisville: Entertaining evening wraps with controversial stoppage

An entertaining night of action at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky ended in controversial fashion.

In the early moments of the fourth round of Saturday’s middleweight main event, Nassourdine Imavov hit Jared Cannonier with a shot that put the Top 5 fixture on shaky footing, prompting the Paris-based hopeful to press forward in search of a finish. As he continued landing a smattering of shots that prompted Cannonier to retreat and look for safe space, referee Jason Herzog stepped in and halted the action.

Cannonier immediately protested, the crowd instantly broke out into a Bronx cheer, and the biggest win of Imavov’s career was quickly saddled with an asterisk.

Herzog is one of the absolute best officials in the sport, but most believe that he got one wrong on Saturday night. While Imavov was swarming, Cannonier was still on his feet and covering up, looking to defend himself.

But the way the fight ended doesn’t take away from the totality of Imavov’s performance on Saturday night, as the 29-year-old took the best Cannonier had to offer, found his range and rhythm, and then started to take the fight to the former middleweight title challenger as the bout progressed.

Though he wasn’t a heralded prospect when he arrived in the UFC in the fall of 2020, Imavov has matriculated his way up the middleweight ranks, amassing a 6-2 record with one no contest verdict over his first nine appearances, and forced his way into the title conversation with his strong outing — despite the suspect stoppage — on Saturday evening.

Asked for his thoughts on where he stands in the division following the contest, Imavov lobbied for an opportunity to face former champ Sean Strickland, who earned a unanimous decision win over Paulo Costa last weekend at UFC 302, when the promotion returns to Paris in late September. Strickland has said he wants to wait for a championship opportunity, but the matchup certainly makes sense in terms of where each man stands in the middleweight hierarchy at the moment.

Former light heavyweight title challenger Dominick Reyes notched his first victory in more than four years in the co-main event of the evening, stopping divisional stalwart Dustin Jacoby in two minutes flat.

Jacoby was pressuring forward, picking his spots and had Reyes backed into the fence when the 34-year-old connected with a left hook that turned Jacoby’s legs to rubber. Reyes chased after him, connected with a huge knee to the dome in the clinch, and the finish came soon after.

This was an emotional moment for Reyes, who many believe did enough to defeat Jon Jones and win the light heavyweight title at UFC 253 in February 2020. That debated decision didn’t go his way, and Reyes was stopped in each of his next three outings, leaving many to wonder what the future held for the former contender.

Finishing Jacoby halted his slide and got Reyes moving in the right direction heading into the second half of the year, where numerous fresh matchups in the 205-pound ranks await.

The youngest fighter on the UFC roster, 19-year-old Raul Rosas Jr., registered a second-round submission win over recent TUF winner Ricky Turcios on Saturday, pushing his record to 3-1 inside the Octagon. This was a small step up in competition for “El Niño Problema” and he showed signs of development, dealing with moments of adversity and quality scrambling from Turcios before finally working to his back and locking up the choke midway through the second round.

Rosas Jr. has been under scrutiny since signing with the UFC as a 17-year-old after a win on Dana White’s Contender Series and clearly is still a work in progress as a fighter. But garnering experience at the highest level and learning to deal with the challenges present on the biggest stage in the sport should only serve to help the emerging bantamweight continue to grow inside and outside of the cage.

Brunno Ferreira and Zachary Reese brought the thunder early in the main card, with each of the middleweights collecting punishing first-round stoppage wins.

Ferreira engaged in a chaotic brawl with Dustin Stoltzfus, ending things in the late stages of the round with a spinning back elbow to collect his second first-round finish of the year and third in four bouts in the UFC. One fight earlier, Reese needed just 20 seconds to dispatch Julian Marquez, following up a thudding left body kick with a right uppercut that shut off Marquez’ lights as he crashed backwards to the canvas.

While neither is anywhere near contention at this point as they are both in the early days of their respective UFC journeys, they’re each proving to be all-action, must-see fighters in victory or defeat, in the 185-pound weight class.

Ludovit Klein continued his unbeaten march forward in the lightweight division in the final preliminary card bout of the evening, turning in his best overall effort to date in the UFC and sweeping the scorecards against Thiago Moisés. The 29-year-old from Slovakia staggered his Brazilian counterpart on a few occasions, utilizing a different weapon each time, flashing excellent defensive wrestling while picking up his third straight win and extending his unbeaten streak to six.

After going 1-2 over his first three UFC outings at featherweight — and missing weight for his short-notice debut — Klein moved up to lightweight in 2022 and hasn’t looked back. This matchup against Moises was the stiffest test of his career and Klein passed with flying colours, showcasing a diverse arsenal of skills while making a case for another step up in competition next time out.

Carlos Prates ended the string of decisions to open the night at the KFC Yum! Center with a punishing knee to the midsection of Charles Radtke. A member of last year’s DWCS graduating class, “The Nightmare” looked for the attack throughout the opening round, and after freezing Radtke with a straight left hand that stung, he stepped through, sunk a heavy knee into Radtke’s liver, and the fight was over.

That’s now consecutive stoppage wins for the 30-year-old Brazilian inside the Octagon and nine straight victories overall, making Prates a genuine person of interest going forward in the 170-pound weight class.

Canadian Brad Katona got back into the win column on the prelims, turning in a dominant effort against local fighter Jesse Butler. The two-time Ultimate Fighter winner was all over Butler from the outset, keeping his shoulders planted to the canvas for long stretches over the first two rounds and down the stretch in the third, turning in a complete effort on the way to sweeping the scorecards and registering his 14th win as a professional.

History was made in the opening bout of the night in Louisville, as Puja Tomar not only became the first female fighter from India to compete inside the Octagon but also the first Indian fighter to garner a victory under the UFC banner, landing on the happy side of a split decision result in her clash with Rayanne dos Santos.