Robert Whittaker wasted no time defeating Ikram Aliskerov in the middleweight main event of UFC Fight Night on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Whittaker (27-7), a former UFC champion and ranked No. 4 in ESPN's 185-pound rankings, was dominant in victory. Whittaker needed just over three minutes to finish the fight, as a flurry of kicks and punches stunned Aliskerov, with a vicious uppercut sending the Russian to the canvas and forcing the match to end.
Aliskerov (15-2) had won seven fights in a row. He took the bout on short notice last week after Whittaker's scheduled opponent, Khamzat Chimaev, withdrew.
Here are the results of the 12 fights on the card along with how to watch replays of each matchup.
Whittaker puts on a show in Saudi Arabia
Okamoto: Robert Whittaker was supposed to face undefeated middleweight Khamzat Chimaev (13-0), but Chimaev was forced to withdraw last week due to injury. The UFC replaced Chimaev with Ikram Aliskerov, a very talented up-and-comer who had only fought twice in the UFC. It became an all-risk, no-reward situation for Whittaker, which he accepted anyway.
Despite Whittaker's history as a former champion in the UFC, betting odds closed nearly even between him and Aliskerov. Aliskerov, 31, is from the same region of Dagestan as retired lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and hasn't lost since 2019. His only loss going into Saturday was actually against Chimaev.
Whittaker stunned him a little over a minute into the fight with a counter right hand. The shot put Aliskerov on skates and Whittaker followed with a jab that sent him reeling back to the fence. Whittaker followed him to the cage and threw a perfect right uppercut that basically ended the fight. Referee Marc Goddard gave Aliskerov one final chance to recover on his knees, but it was clear he was done.
How to watch the fight replays
Watch all of the fight replays on ESPN+: Get ESPN+ here.
There's also FightCenter, which offers stats for every UFC card.
UFC Fight Night card results
Middleweight: Robert Whittaker def. Ikram Aliskerov
Heavyweight: Alexander Volkov def. Sergei Pavlovich
Middleweight: Kelvin Gastelum def. Daniel Rodriguez
Middleweight: Shara Magomedov def. Antonio Trocoli
Light heavyweight: Volkan Oezdemir def. Johnny Walker
Lightweight: Nasrat Haqparast def. Jared Gordon
Men's featherweight: Felipe Lima def. Muhammad Naimov
Welterweight: Rinat Fakhretdinov def. Nicolas Dalby
Men's bantamweight: Muin Gafurov def. Kyung Ho Kang
Light heavyweight: Magomed Gadzhiyasulov def. Brendson Ribeiro
Men's bantamweight: ChangHo Lee def. Xiao Long
Top story
Khamzat Chimaev out of UFC main event vs. Whittaker with illness