Former UFC champion Ronda Rousey warned us that we wouldn’t want to miss Edmen Shahbazyan’s fight at tonight’s UFC 235. We didn’t even need a full minute to see why.
Making his second UFC appearance at only 21, Shahbazyan (9-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) dispatched Charles Byrd (10-6 MMA, 1-2 UFC) only 38 seconds into the preliminary card middleweight bout, which streamed live on UFC Fight Pass from Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena.
Considering Shahbazyan is managed by Rousey, it’s fitting that his weapon of choice were the elbows that the ex-champ’s husband, heavyweight Travis Browne, had often used to dismantle his own opponents in the UFC cage. (Via Twitter)
Shahbazyan remains perfect in his career, which includes a split decision over Darren Stewart in his UFC debut and a 40-second TKO finish of Antonio Jones at Dana White’s Contender Series 13.
Rousey would later take to Twitter to congratulate Shahbazyan – who sent a shout-out to Browne for the vicious elbows.
We get that Rousey is a little biased when she says her protege is “the kind of fighter you’ll brag about watching since the beginning of his career,” but he sure isn’t disappointing so far.
For complete coverage of UFC 235, check out the UFC Events section of the site.
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