ABU DHABI – Raulian Paiva beat Zhalgas Zhumagulov with a unanimous decision Saturday on the preliminary card at UFC 251 in Abu Dhabi.
Take a look inside the fight with Paiva, who now has back-to-back wins after a pair of decision losses to open his UFC tenure in 2019.
Result: Raulian Paiva def. Zhalgas Zhumagulov via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Updated records: Paiva (20-3 MMA, 2-2 UFC), Zhumagulov (13-4 MMA, 0-1 UFC)
Key stat: Zhumagulov outstruck Paiva 73-56 and landed the fight’s only pair of takedowns – but came up short with the judges.
Paiva on the fight’s key moment
“The fight was a little bit different than I expected. There are no easy fights in the UFC. I’m just happy I was able to show some improvement in my game. I was able to work a lot of kicks – something I don’t normally use. For this particular opponent, it seemed like something that would work. The result showed for itself. I’m really happy with the performance.”
Paiva on executing his game plan
“He’s very good at what he does. I knew he was mostly a striker. I was ready to strike with him and see who’s the best at it. He tried a few takedowns, but I was able to reverse them. If it did go to the ground, I knew my jiu-jitsu was better than his. Overall, striking with him was a good choice.”
Paiva on what he wants next
“I was ranked 14th (in the UFC) coming into the fight. I just want to ask if I can get a top-10 opponent. I think I should go up the rankings a bit with the win. Hopefully I can get a top-10 opponent.”
To hear more from Paiva, check out the video of the full post-fight interview above.
