The headline fight at UFC on ABC 5 in Jacksonville went all the way to a unanimous decision win for the Georgian fighter, 50-44, 50-42 and 49-45.
For most of the match, Topuria owned the initiative and dominated his opponent in the standing position, managing to seriously shock him in the second round, and in the fourth five-minute period he completely defeated the American, knocking him down twice and nearly finishing on the ground.
However, in the fifth round, Emmett, whose face was covered with hematomas and filled with blood, went for broke and began to put pressure on the enemy, throwing him heavy blows, as a result of which Topuria decided not to risk victory and transferred the fight to the ground, where he controlled the opponent until the final sirens.
In a post-match interview, Ilia Topuria, who won the sixth consecutive victory in the UFC, announced that he wants to see his next opponent the winner of the unification fight between Alexander Volkanovski and Yair Rodriguez, who will meet on July 8 at UFC 290 in Las Vegas.
In the co-main event of the event, the representatives of the flyweight division Brazilian Amanda Ribas and American Maisie Barber staged a bright uncompromising battle, in which the latter won by technical knockout at around 3:42 of the second round.
In the third most important event of the tournament, American heavyweight Austin Lane, already at the 29th second of the fight, hit a finger in the eye of Australian Justin Tafa, who was unable to continue the meeting, as a result of which the promising fight was declared invalid.
Among other results, we note the next defeat of the Kazakhstani fighter Zhalgas Zhumagulov, who lost in three rounds by a separate decision to the organization’s rookie Joshua Wang, as well as the unsuccessful performance of the representative of Tajikistan, Loika Radjabov, who lost by technical knockout in the second round to Mateusz Rebecki.
Early victories were won by David Onama and Brendan Allen.
All UFC on ABC 5 tournament results.