It wasn’t the main event the UFC had planned, but it’s one that should have greater implications for the future of the featherweight division, one of the promotion’s most competitive proving grounds.
Following Junior dos Santos’s withdrawal due to a bacterial infection from the originally scheduled heavyweight headliner between “Cigano” and Alexander Volkov, featherweight contenders Zabit Magomedsharipov and Calvin Kattar were promoted to close out UFC Moscow. Fortunately for the matchmakers, it’s a bout more than worthy of main event status.
Magomedsharipov entered the UFC with reputation of a monster, and he hasn’t disappointed, defeating his first five opponents, including a recent decision over veteran Jeremy Stephens.