Muslim Salikhov had an impressive outing at UFC Fight Night 215, which took place at the Apex Facility in Paradise, Nevada.
‘King of Kung Fu’ took on the always-exciting Andre Fialho in a welterweight scrap on the main card of UFC Vegas 65. The fight ended in the third round when Salikhov landed a brutal head lick on Fialho and followed it with a punching combo. The referee decided that he had seen enough and intervened to stop the fight.
Salikhov was declared the winner by TKO and with the victory, the 38-year-old bounced back from his loss to Li Jingliang. In his previous outing, ‘King of Kung Fu’ suffered a brutal knockout loss at the hands of Jingliang at UFC on ABC: Ortega vs. Rodriguez.
After the loss, Salikhov had left his gym Berkut FC and moved to the prominent American Top Team in Florida, USA. In the lead-up to his fight at UFC Vegas 65, Salikhov talked about the gym-change.
“I changed everything. I changed my team. I came to America two and a half months ago. Before, I [used to] train with a small team with one coach. Now, I have changed everything, you know, and I feel that I’ve learnt a lot now and I feel more comfortable anywhere. Like, [in] wrestling, jiu-jitsu – every sparring [session] was great. I feel great right now, and I’m sure this fight will be different.”
You can watch Muslim Salikhov about changing training camps below:
Muslim Salikhov is now 6-2 in the UFC
Muslim Salikhov made his UFC debut in November 2017 and competed on the UFC Fight Night: Bisping vs Gastelum card. ‘King of Kung Fu’ came into the UFC with a 13-1 record and was matched up against Alex Garcia.
The 38-year-old did not fare well in his UFC debut as he was submitted by Garcia in the second round via a rear-naked choke.
But Salikhov bounced back from the loss with two impressive back-to-back knockouts against Ricky Rainey and Nordine Taleb. But the winning streak did not stop there.
Salikhov also won his next three fights against Laureano Staropoli, Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos and Francisco Trinaldo, all via decision.
Jingliang proved to be a roadblock in ‘King of Kung Fu’s UFC run and broke his win streak. But with an impressive performance at UFC Vegas 65, Salikhov has returned to winning ways.