Ikram Aliskerov certainly doesn’t get paid by the hour.
The 15-1 Russian, a four-time Combat Sambo world champion, has had just three bouts in a UFC cage to date in his professional career (if you count the Dana White Contender Series, that is) and on each of those occasions, his opponent has failed to see the conclusion of the first round.
What is even more remarkable is that each of those wins — a submission, a TKO and a KO — all came at roughly the same part of the first round: 2:09, 2:10 and 2:07.
This Saturday night, Aliskerov gets the biggest opportunity of his career when he steps in for Khamzat Chimaev (who, incidentally, is the only man to have defeated Aliskerov in MMA) to fight former 185-pound champion Robert Whittaker in the main event of the UFC fight card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — and if he repeats his trend of first-round finishes, the UFC has a brand new contender at middleweight.
Check out the Russian’s impressive KO finish of Phil Hawes below:
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