Nurmagomedov chokes out Poirier to defend lightweight title

By: Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

THE best lightweight in the world, period.

Khabib Nurmagomedov once again dominated despite almost a year of absence from the octagon due to suspension, submitting resilient opponent Dustin Poirier in the third round of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Tagged as the dark horse to Nurmagomedov’s career, Poirier’s elite striking wasn’t enough to stop the champ.

Poirier did a wonderful job maintaining the distance in the first round to avoid getting taken down by the ground master Nurmagomedov, forcing the champ to a striking game in decent minutes.

Just as Poirier thought he could maintain his striking distance, Nurmagomedov looked like a raging bull with under a minute left in the first as he surged to Poirier, clinched his waist, and the ground game began.

Poirier’s gas started depleting as soon as Nurmagomedov brought him down to the canvass.

Nurmagomedov then blitzed at the start of the second, quickly stormed Poirier to avoid his boxing set-up for another takedown.

The challenger then experienced hell for another 5 minutes, withstanding Nurmagomedov’s insane strength in the grappling game.

In the 2:06 mark of the third round, Nurmagomedov got a wonderful lock that enabled him for a clear choke position, submitting Poirier.

As of the moment, Connor McGregor’s name is the only one in the list to challenge Nurmagomedov.