Habirora showed no respect to one of his most accomplished
elders.
“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.
Related »
PFL Brussels round-by-round scoring
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.