BRAVE CF 55 Results: Ali Bagautinov Books Spot in Flyweight Tournament Final
BRAVE CF flyweight Ali Bagautinov is one fight away from claiming the inaugural BRAVE CF Flyweight Championship after his first-round TKO victory over the USA’s Sean Santella saw him advance to the final of the BRAVE CF flyweight tournament. The pair faced off in the main event of BRAVE CF 55, which took place today( Sat. November 6) in Rostov-on-Don, Russia.
Bagautinov was set to meet Jose Torres, but Torres was forced to pull out of the contest due to issues with his weight cut. Fortunately, Santella, who drew with Torres in the quarterfinals, but left the tournament following injury, was due to compete on the undercard and leaped at the opportunity to take on Bagautinov.
Bagautinov took control of the contest from the outset, landing a couple of quick shots early on as Santella unsuccessfully attempted to earn a takedown. The 37-year-old Santella maintained his pursuit as he looked to implement his noted ground game, but in doing so, opened himself to heavy shots from Bagautinov.
The Russian veteran landed a crashing elbow from a standing position as Santella held on to the left leg, which rocked the American. Bagautinov then unleashed a series of heavy shots forcing the referee to step in and wave the contest off. In his post-fight interview Santella felt that the elbow landed on the back of his head, but still vowed to come back stronger in the future.
The stage is now set for an all-Russian final between Bagautinov and Velimurad Alkhasov. The Chechen booked his passage to the championship bout with a win over former UFC flyweight Zach Makovsky at BRAVE CF 50. However, the date for the championship bout has not yet been set.
In the semi-final bout, super welterweight Ibrahim Mane and Artur Sviridov fought to a draw. All three judges scored the fight 29-29. Earlier in the night, UK lightweight Sam Patterson scored his fourth straight win under the BRAVE CF banner, with a submission victory over Kamil Magomedov.
The win takes Patterson’s BRAVE CF record to 4-0-1, with the draw coming against the recently crowned lightweight champion Ahmed Amir. A meeting between the two seems now to be a very distinct possibility.
BRAVE CF 55 was the year’s final show for the Bahrain-based promotion, and the company heads into 2022 with several intriguing options on the cards for future events.
Here are the full results from BRAVE CF 55 Full Results
- Flyweight Tournament Semi-final: Ali Bagautinov def. Sean Santella via TKO (punches) at 1:01 of Round 1
- Super Welterweight: Ibrahim Mane vs. Artur Sviridov settles with a unanimous draw (29-29, 29-29, 29-29)
- Lightweight: Sam Patterson def. Kamil Magomedov via submission (guillotine) at 3:21 of Round 2
- Middleweight: Abusupyan Alikhanov def. Rustam Chsiev via majority decision (29-29, 30-28, 30-29)
- Welterweight: Sergey Yaskovec def. Andrey Bragovskiy via TKO (punches) at 4:53 of Round 2
- Super Welterweight: Kamal Magomedov def. Vitaly Tverdokhlebov via submission (armbar) at 0:52 of Round 1
- Catchweight (72,5kg): Ali Abdulkhalikov def. Artur Aliev via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-28, 30-28)
- Middleweight: Gazimurad Magomedov def. Djabrail Aidamirov via knockout (punches) at 0:46 of Round 1
- Featherweight: Albert Mallakurbanov def. Ahmed Omarov via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 29-27)
- Bantamweight: Vadim Pavlikov def. Alan Balaev via submission (rear-naked choke) at 3:56 of Round 3
