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Last night (Sat., Nov. 22, 2025), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) ventured forth to ABHA Arena in Doha, Qatar for UFC Qatar. For the second time in as many weeks, we were looking at an absolutely stacked card, and this one was free! Unlike UFC Baku, this “Fight Night” event absolutely lived up to the hype, providing a bevy of violent finishes alongside some genuinely excellent performances with serious divisional implications. If you didn’t enjoy watching UFC Qatar, this may not be the sport for you …
Let’s take a look back over the best performances and techniques of the evening:
Tsarukyan Makes A Statement
… and that statement is, “It’s time for a title shot.”
Arman Tsarukyan ran through Dan Hooker like nobody’s business. Even on the feet, Tsarukyan was faster and landed some heavy shots. The talented wrestler didn’t have much trouble dragging the lanky kickboxer to the floor, avoiding his desperation guillotine attempts with incredible and acrobatic defense. Once in top position, Tsarukyan dropped the hammer, smashing Hooker with punches and elbows from top position.
He did a great deal of damage, leaving Hooker badly battered by the start of the second. The next takedown came quickly, paving the way for more hard shots and eventually opening up the arm triangle submission. Hooker is as tough as they come, but the veteran was outmatched.
After UFC Qatar, Ilia Topuria vs. Arman Tsarukyan is the only fight to make at 155 pounds.
Ian Garry got the job done in the UFC Qatar co-main event versus former champion Belal Muhammad.
The lanky Irishman imposed his reach advantage beautifully. Muhammad pressured forward admirably, but faced with a speed and reach disadvantage, he ended up eating quite a few shots in the process. Garry timed Muhammad’s step forward nicely with low kicks and oblique kicks, really jamming up his advance. Another half-step closer, Garry was flicking him with a jab that didn’t miss often.
Garry’s takedown defense held up well also, meaning there wasn’t much of a path for Muhammad other than to keep pressing and hope to connect with a fight-changing shot. Though “The Bully” made some solid reads on the feet, he didn’t have the power to hurt Garry and continued to fall behind in the volume game.
I’m not sure it was the statement Garry needed to make for a title shot, but it’s a quality extension to his excellent win streak nevertheless.
No Time Is Back
It’s really fun having Volkan Oezdemir knocking people out again. He started his UFC career off super hot with a major pair of knockouts, but the heavy-handed kickboxer actually went about four years without knocking anyone out between September 2019 and June 2024.
Alonzo Menifield turned out to be the perfect matchup for his second knockout win in his last three fights. Oezdemir’s combination of feints, jabs, and low kicks proved the perfect mix for drawing out wide “Atomic” swings, taking them on the forearms, and then landing a stiff shot in return. It only took about a minute for Oezdemir to really figure out his foe’s range and timing, then he was able to back him into the fence and unleash a savage combination to finish the fight in quick fashion.
Oezdemir may not ever fight for the title again, but he remains a valuable member of the Light Heavyweight Top 10.
Year Of Salsa Boy
I’ll confess that I didn’t think much of Waldo Cortes-Acosta leading into 2025. Ending the hype of Robelis Despaigne and decisioning Andrei Arlovski was okay, I guess, but he just felt like a random jabber destined to end up as a main card opener inside the UFC Apex for the foreseeable future.
Not only did Cortes-Acosta accept his UFC Qatar bout versus Shamil Gaziev with less than two days to fly across the world, make weight, and fight, but he picked up his third knockout win of the year! A Heavyweight capable of fighting five times is unusual, let alone one who’s putting up a 4-1 record against a stiffer class of competition than he had ever previously faced.
The fight itself went quickly. Gaziev started fast and landed a couple decent shots, but he was walking into jabs right away. Before long, “Salsa Boy” dialed in his right hand as well, flooring Gaziev twice in the first round to secure a stoppage victory.
On the whole, it really feels like Cortes-Acosta has found his power and his confidence. He’s a 265-pound Heavyweight with strong boxing skills and a brick chin — he should be sitting down on his punches! Now that he’s trying to hurt his opponent rather than just jab ‘em up, he’s much more fun to watch and has proven himself a real contender.
Welcome Back Kyoji
It’s great to have former Flyweight title challenger Kyoji Horiguchi back on the UFC roster. Even though he’s shown some evidence of physical decline in recent years, the 35-year-old karateka is still one of the best 125-pound fighters on the planet, and this victory over Tagir Ulanbekov proved it.
Ulanbekov looked a full weight class bigger than Horiguchi, which did result in some early control time. As the low kicks added up and Horiguchi found his range, however, Ulanbekov’s size became a disadvantage. He was so, so much slower than the Japanese star, who darted in and out with seriously powerful swings. Horiguchi’s low kicks really broke down the Dagestani athlete, widening that speed advantage further.
Horiguchi is such a masterful karate striker — he’s really one of the best of his style to ever compete in MMA. It’s so fun watching him time major connections off big, athletic movements. I think he landed his high kick three separate times! Generally, his defensive wrestling looked sharp too, particularly after he settled into the fight. His performance tonight really showed that had Horiguchi opted to remain a UFC fighter for the last decade, he likely would have captured the belt at some point.
As it stands, he’s still an outside threat to champion Alexandre Pantoja. If that bout can be booked in the near future, it would be an outstanding matchup.
Additional Thoughts
- Myktybek Orolbai defeats Jack Hermansson via first-round knockout (highlights): This matchup of former Lightweight versus former Middleweight very much looked like a mismatch. Hermansson was far bigger and worked to establish his jab, but he also looked pretty slow at his new weight class. Orolbai was thoroughly unbothered by the size disadvantage, pressing forward with combinations and really walking the bigger man down. Before too long, his double threat of the right uppercut and right hand found its way through the guard, flooring Hermansson for a tremendous KO stoppage. Hermansson made a bold choice to drop down to Welterweight as a career Middleweight at 37 years of age following a bad knockout loss earlier this year … and it did not pay off at all.
- Asu Almabayev defeats Alex Perez via third-round guillotine choke: Alex Perez is not a lucky man. He should not buy lottery tickets, pet black cats, nor walk beneath ladders. On paper, the former Flyweight title challenger has all the skills to win Top 10 fights. In reality, he struggles to make it to the cage and inexplicably finds ways to lose winnable fights. In this bout specifically, Perez was out-landing and out-wrestling Almabayev for two full rounds. Suddenly, Almabayev cracked him with a wheel kick and forced Perez to panic shoot right into a tight guillotine choke for a quick comeback. In an instant, all Perez’s good work was gone, and he’s now lost five of his last six fights. Maybe if Perez fights more often, he can right the ship, but it’s been a tremendously rough stretch. Almabayev, conversely, is now 4-1 inside the Octagon, though he didn’t show anything here that implies a rematch with Manel Kape would go much better for the Kazakh athlete.
- Luke Riley defeats Bogdan Grad via second-round knockout (highlights): Riley’s UFC career did not exactly get off to a perfect start. He spent a lot of the first five minutes being controlled by Grad, a skilled wrestler with a relentless pace. Every round starts back on the feet and in the open, however, and Riley is a slick hitter. The undefeated prospect and former Cage Warriors champ floored Grad in the early seconds of the second with a powerful 1-2-3, then he sealed the deal with some seriously accurate ground striking moments later. At 26 years of age, Riley still has some learning to do on the job to compete at the highest level of the UFC Featherweight division, but he’s clearly a gifted young fighter.
- Abdul-Rakhman Yakhyaev defeats Raffael Cerquiera via first-round rear naked choke (highlights): Well … this is what a -1600 favorite is supposed to look like. This fight lasted a mere 30 seconds, as Yakhyaev was able to land a slick high kick in pretty much the first exchange, jump his opponent’s back, and then choke him out! That’s a hell of a way to make a UFC debut, even if Cerquiera isn’t the toughest test around.
- Ismail Naurdiev defeats Ryan Loder via first-round knockout (highlights): Though billed as striker vs. wrestler matchup, Nardiev actually never had to defend a takedown here. That’s what happens when pretty much the first fully committed punch he threw lands directly on the chin, as Naurdiev timed a huge overhand swing perfectly to knock out his opponent in one shot. Now 3-1 since moving to Middleweight, “The Austrian Wonderboy” could still develop into a contender. He’s just 29 years old and already has a wealth of combat experience.
For complete UFC Qatar results and play-by-play, click here.
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