Outside Source
“The Belgian Bomber” stepped up his ascent in the Professional Fighters League and blew away onetime Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Extreme Cagefighting titleholder Benson Henderson with punches in the first round of their PFL Brussels welterweight main event on Saturday at ING Arena in Belgium. Henderson (30-13, 0-1 PFL) met his end just 20 seconds into Round 1.
Habirora (9-0, 5-0 PFL) intercepted the MMA Lab cornerstone with a left hook and backed it up with a right hook that sent the John Crouch protégé into a nosedive. Prone and badly hurt, the 42-year-old Henderson ate a series of right hands before referee Mike Beltran could arrive on the scene to rescue him.
Meanwhile, former Ares Fighting Championship and TKO Major League MMA titleholder Taylor Lapilus cruised to a clear-cut unanimous decision over Dana White’s Contender Series alum Jake Hadley in their three-round bantamweight co-headliner. All three cageside judges turned in 30-27 scorecards for Lapilus.
Nothing the game but outmatched Hadley tried worked. Lapilus (25-4, 4-0 PFL) battered the Englishman with sharp jabs, occasional multi-punch bursts and a few low kicks, all while refusing every one of his attempted takedowns. Hadley (12-6, 1-2 PFL) gave into frustration and retreated to the butt scoot position more than once out of desperation, at which point the Frenchman snaked away into open space, hammered him with standing leg kicks and prompted restarts from the referee.
Lapilus, 34, now finds himself on a six-fight winning streak.
Further down the main draw, burgeoning Team Sendo star Boris Mbarga Atangana kept his perfect professional record intact and wasted little time in doing so, as he swept aside Jared Gooden with punches in the first round of their middleweight showcase. Gooden (23-12, 0-1 PFL) succumbed to blows 65 seconds into Round 1.
Atangana (9-0, 4-0 PFL) dazed the American with a head kick, pushed him to the fence and let fly with power punches from both hands. Bleeding from a cut underneath his right eye, Gooden tried to cover up along the cage but ate a vicious left hook and finally wilted on the end of three unabated right hands over the top from the undefeated Belgian.
All nine of Atangana’s victories have resulted in finishes, seven of them inside one round.
Elsewhere, ex-Rizin Fighting Federation champion Naoki Inoue called upon smooth lateral movement, his trusted jab and a late surge to secure a split decision over Chute Boxe’s Marcirley Alves in their closely contested three-round bantamweight attraction. Scores were 29-28 and 29-28 for Inoue, 30-27 for the Joao Emilio-trained Alves.
The 28-year-old Inoue (21-5, 1-0 PFL) steered clear of danger for much of the first round but encountered significant turbulence in the second. Alves (15-5, 3-1 PFL) bloodied his nose with jabs and scrambled his signal with a clubbing right hand over the top. Inoue leaned into his guile and experience, managed to recover and found the means with which to respond in Round 3. There, he attacked the legs and body with kicks, cut loose with one-twos and dropped Alves with a sneaky left hook at the end of an exchange. The Brazilian withstood the brief onslaught that followed, hit the reset button and returned fire, only to fall short on two of the three scorecards.
Inoue has won five of his past six bouts.
Finally, SBG Ireland’s Asael Adjoudj cut down former Shooto champion Keisuke Sasu with a head kick and follow-up punches in the second round of their featherweight appetizer. Sasu (14-5-1, 0-1 PFL) clocked out 2:22 into Round 2, suffering his second knockout loss in as many appearances.
Adjoudj (11-1, 3-0 PFL) maximized his seven-inch height advantage, blasted the Master Japan-trained judoka with kicks to all levels and neutralized his takedowns with an efficient get-up game. Sasu never managed the range properly and paid a steep price midway through the middle stanza. Adjoudj floored him with a devastating head kick, then pounced with hammerfists to ensure the job was done.
The 27-year-old Adjoudj has rattled off 10 consecutive victories.
In preliminary action, Gustavo Oliveira (13-2, 3-0 PFL) dispatched Baris Adiguzel (10-2, 2-1 PFL) with a ninja choke 1:10 into the second round of their bantamweight confrontation; Khamzat Abaev (6-1, 1-1 PFL) put away Luca Poclit (10-3, 0-2 PFL) with punches 2:56 into the first round of their welterweight clash; Adam Meskini (11-3, 3-1 PFL) eked out a split decision—29-28, 28-29, 29-28—over Keweny Lopes (12-5-1, 0-2 PFL) in their three-round featherweight affair; Movsar Ibragimov (8-1, 2-1 PFL) dismissed Shane Campbell (5-5, 0-0 PFL) with a rear-naked choke 3:28 into the first round of their featherweight encounter; Ashley Reece (10-3, 1-0 PFL) took a unanimous decision—29-28, 29-28, 29-28—from Rustam Serbiev (9-6, 0-1 PFL) in their three-round welterweight tilt; and Donegi Abena (1-0, 1-0 PFL) was awarded a technical knockout over Joe Schilling (4-7, 0-1 PFL) when the volatile American kickboxer refused to continue the fight after being fouled by a head butt 36 seconds into the first round of their light heavyweight pairing.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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