Outside Source
Basharat was originally scheduled to fight Said Nurmagomedov at UFC Fight Night 266 at the Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday. However, Nurmagomedov pulled out due to visa issues and was replaced by Vazquez on two days’ notice. While Basharat successfully made weight, Vazquez came in at 141 pounds, missing the non-title bantamweight limit by a whopping five pounds.
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Basharat dropped Vazquez early and came close to finishing the fight in the first round. However, Vazquez survived the onslaught and turned the tables by dropping Basharat in the second round. Basharat weathered the storm and controlled Vazquez for most of the third round to earn a hard-fought unanimous decision win.
The Struggle is Real
Basharat subsequently revealed that he had a taxing weight cut as he was sick throughout fight week. After finally making weight, “The Snow Leopard” was disappointed to see his opponent miss weight by such a big margin. When Vazquez was celebrating after the fight, Basharat even told him to stop to show some respect.
“I was so sick on fight week, my nose and ears are blocked,” Basharat said in a post-fight interview. “And I was getting dizzy during the weight cut, I didn’t even know how I was going to make weight. Then [Vasquez] comes in and misses by five pounds, that’s why I was so pissed at him. And when he was celebrating after the fight, I told him ‘Calm down, man, you missed weight, have some respect.’”
Vazquez (13-6) was riding a five-fight winning streak going into his short-notice UFC debut against Basharat (15-2). Meanwhile, Basharat rebounded from a three-fight winless streak that included a no-contest followed by two losses.
😬 Javid Basharat was NOT happy with his opponent after Basharat was sick for the entirety of fight week and struggled to make weight, and then Gianni Vasquez missed weight by five pounds.
“I was so sick on fight week, my nose and ears are blocked. And I was getting dizzy during… pic.twitter.com/CwRBmfKmfm
— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) February 8, 2026
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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