Sean Strickland Outstrikes Nassourdine Imavov in UFC Fight Night 217 Main Event

The Ultimate Fighting Championship's first event of the year saw Sean Strickland getting his hand raised against Nassourdine Imavov in the UFC Fight Night 217 main event.

Both men came out looking to strike, with Strickland (25-5) throwing more kicks than usual, slapping the body and legs of Imavov (12-3) with his shin. The pressure and forward movement of "Tarzan" worked well as the French fighter repeatedly got caught by punches in the first round. The second frame would see Imavov finding more success on the feet, which caused Strickland to switch up his attack by incorporating takedown attempts and clinch work. The American would frustrate his opponent with body kicks in the third round and wind up having a lot of success at the close boxing range he imposed.

The fourth round saw Strickland continue his onslaught as Imavov struggled to deal with the overall pressure of the attack. Imavov would show urgency in the fifth round but never came close to doing much damage as "Tarzan" remained the fresher fighter. After five rounds of actions, the judges awarded Strickland a unanimous decision win with scores of 49-46, 49-46 and 48-47 in his favor.

Strickland breaks a two-fight losing streak with the victory.

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Ige Shatters Jackson

The featherweight co-main event between Dan Ige and Damon Jackson delivered plenty of action, just like fans expected.

Showing off his intelligent striking, Ige (16-6) managed to wobble Jackson (22-5-1, 1 NC) several times in Round 1 but stayed patient waiting for the right moment to pounce. "50K" lived up to his nickname as he landed a devastating left hand to knock out Jackson. Ige simply walked away, leaving a crumpled "Action" on the floor as the fight was stopped at 4:13 of Round 2.

Ige bounced back from a three-fight skid in the Octagon with his crushing knockout.

Kopylov Breaks Down Soriano

Punahele Soriano and Roman Kopylov came into their middleweight fight with identical 9-2 records showing how well-matched the two fighters were.

A strong jab helped Kopylov edge out Soriano early on in the tight striking exchanges. Some strong body work from the Russian would hurt the Hawaiian in Round 2, although Soriano refused to quit and pushed through the pain as much as he could. However, Kopylov kept the pressure on and threw punches until the referee had seen enough.

Kopylov improves to 10-2 with the victory.

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Pennington Edges Vieira

The lone women's bout on the card saw Ketlen Vieira take on Raquel Pennington at bantamweight.

It was Vieira (13-3) that looked to be the slightly sharper striker as she was able to land the cleaner strikes against the brawling style of Pennington (15-8) in the first round. "Rocky" would vary up her attack in Round 2 by going for takedowns and clinching against the fence, evening up the back-and-forth fight. The close contest continued in the third, with neither woman able to break away from the other.

The split decision nod went to Pennington with scores of 29-28, 28-29 and 29-28.

Nurmagomedov Destroys Barcelos

The main card kicked off with a bantamweight bout between Umar Nurmagomedov and Raoni Barcelos.

The pace of Nurmagomedov (16-0) was apparent early and the fighter kept moving forward throughout while staying patient. This patience paid off as Nurmagomedov caught Barcelos (17-4) with a perfect left hook coming off a body kick that completely took out the Brazilian. An unneeded hammerfist would further cement the victory as the fight was stopped.

The stoppage officially came at 4:40 of Round 1.

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