Outside Source
Tagir Ulanbekov had a tough outing at UFC Qatar. | Getty/UFC
The Dagestani team will have to go back to the drawing board regarding Tagir Ulanbekov’s next move.
Islam Makhachev had a tough night as a cornerman at UFC Qatar this past Saturday. One Makhachev’teammate, Saygid Izagakhmaev, dropped a split decision in his UFC debut against Nicolas Dalby, and another teammate, Ulanbekov, suffered a submission loss against Kyoji Horiguchi (35-5).
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Makhachev subsequently revealed that Ulanbekov had a terrible weight cut that left him drained before the fight. Makhachev thinks it’s not healthy for the 34-year-old to be cutting down to flyweight anymore. While the team plans to rethink Ulanbekov’s (17-3) career, Makhachev promises that his teammate won’t go through such a gruelling cut again.
Fighting at Half Capacity
“It’s no secret that Tagir is actually older than me. And I saw his entire weight cut — no one had a tougher cut than he did,” Makhachev told the Russian media upon his arrival in Dagestan (translation via Home of Fight). “Even on fight day, I talked to him before and after the bout, telling him he shouldn’t be leaving so much energy in the weight cut.
“Yesterday, Tagir showed maybe only 50% of himself. He walked out there, and after the very first exchange he was already swollen and couldn’t breathe. Honestly, I even wanted to stop the fight. But knowing Tagir’s character — that he fights until the very end — I didn’t do it. He simply didn’t feel comfortable enough to go out there and fight. I think our team will sit down and make a decision — Tagir won’t be cutting weight like that ever again.”
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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