Tahir Abdullayev

Abdullayev's UFC debut turned into a late finish after he stayed with the fight long enough to stop Jefferson Nascimento with punches at 4:28 of round three. The result mattered because it came against another undefeated regional champion and pushed his winning streak to five straight.

Key moments

• The fight reached the final minute of round three before Abdullayev found the finish.
• He stopped Nascimento by punches at 4:28 of the third round.
• The win moved Abdullayev to 20-3 as he entered the UFC ranks.
• It capped a five-fight rebound run after the Boynazarov loss.

Abdullayev carried his comeback run through another finish in Georgia, catching Dadras in a guillotine choke with only 20 seconds left in round two. That timing matters because it shows he did not need a quick start to find the stoppage once the fight turned in his favor.

Key moments

• The fight lasted deep into round two rather than ending in the opening minutes.
• Abdullayev closed the show with a guillotine choke at 4:40 of the second round.
• It was his second straight submission win.
• The result kept the post-title-loss rebound moving toward a UFC call.

Abdullayev needed just over three minutes to submit Shadmanov with a shoulder choke, adding another first-round finish to a profile already heavy on early control and quick damage. It was the kind of regional statement win that kept his momentum obvious even without UFC branding behind it yet.

Key moments

• The finish came in round one at 3:23.
• Abdullayev used a shoulder choke rather than one of his more common guillotine or armbar finishes.
• The win made it back-to-back stoppages after the Alkhasov fight.
• It reinforced how dangerous he remained once he reached top position.

Abdullayev put away Rakhmatov with a first-round north-south choke, one of the cleaner examples in his record of turning pressure into immediate grappling finishes. The variety of the submission also underlined that his finishing record is not built on a single repeated setup.

Key moments

• He finished the fight in the opening round at 4:12.
• The stoppage came by north-south choke, adding another method to his submission file.
• It was his third win in a row after the Boynazarov defeat.
• The result kept his 2025 run entirely on the finishing side.

Abdullayev restarted his climb with the kind of fast knockout he has built much of his record on, stopping Kosinov only 64 seconds into the first round. After the five-round Boynazarov loss, that immediate violence was exactly the statement a rebound needed.

Key moments

• The fight lasted just 1:04 of round one.
• Abdullayev secured the finish with punches rather than a submission.
• It snapped the skid from the Boynazarov title-fight loss.
• The stoppage set the tone for the four more wins that followed.

Boynazarov handed Abdullayev a clear five-round decision loss in a fight that appears to have doubled as a regional title setback. The result mattered because it snapped Abdullayev's momentum at the top end of the regional scene and became the loss he eventually answered with a five-fight surge into the UFC.

Key moments

• Boynazarov beat Abdullayev by unanimous decision after five rounds.
• The bout followed Abdullayev's split-decision win over Yuriy Ermolenko in July 2023.
• Abdullayev answered the loss by winning his next five fights.

Abdullayev put Alkhasov away late in round two and used the finish to keep building toward the later title opportunity against Boynazarov. The result mattered because it gave him another stoppage against experienced regional opposition rather than another narrow decision.

Key moments

• Abdullayev stopped Alkhasov by TKO at 4:35 of the second round.
• The finish followed the split-decision win over Yuriy Ermolenko.
• It set up the October 2024 five-round fight with Khotam Boynazarov.

Ermolenko pushed Abdullayev to the cards in one of the rarer close decisions on a record dominated by finishes. The result mattered because it showed Abdullayev could edge a competitive fifteen-minute fight and still keep the climb moving without relying on an early stoppage.

Key moments

• Abdullayev beat Ermolenko by split decision over three rounds.
• It was his first decision victory since the 2015 win over Rasul Mansurov.
• The win followed the first-round TKO of Nikita Severov.

Abdullayev's fight with Severov was a clean reminder of the finishing pressure that defines most of his record, ending exactly three minutes into round one. The result mattered because it served as a quick rebound after the Josh Togo loss and restarted the run that led to the UFC.

Key moments

• Abdullayev stopped Severov by TKO at the 3:00 mark of round one.
• The finish came after the September 2022 decision loss to Josh Togo.
• It began the four-fight winning streak before the Boynazarov setback.

Togo beat Abdullayev over five rounds, handing him one of the few non-finishing setbacks on the record. The result mattered because it interrupted a longer regional rise that had included finishes of Skibinski, Lyapunov and Khudoyorov.

Key moments

• Togo beat Abdullayev by unanimous decision after five rounds.
• The defeat followed Abdullayev's first-round finish of Daniel Skibinski in October 2021.
• It was Abdullayev's first loss since Roman Bogatov submitted him in 2018.

Abdullayev needed only 45 seconds to blow through Skibinski, one of the fastest finishes on his ledger. The result mattered because it preserved the aggressive identity of his record after the longer third-round submission of Alexey Lyapunov earlier that year.

Key moments

• Abdullayev stopped Skibinski by TKO at 0:45 of round one.
• It was his quickest finish since the 2020 blowout of Kishvar Khudoyorov.
• The win made it four straight professional victories.

Lyapunov forced Abdullayev deeper than many of his other opponents, but Abdullayev still found a late guillotine in the third round. The result mattered because it showed he could carry his finishing threat into the late stages of a fight rather than only early scrambles.

Key moments

• Abdullayev submitted Lyapunov with a guillotine choke at 3:00 of round three.
• The finish followed the July 2020 first-round TKO of Kishvar Khudoyorov.
• It was Abdullayev's first recorded win beyond round one since 2019.

Abdullayev got back to quick violence against Khudoyorov, finishing him inside 75 seconds. The result mattered because it was a sharp rebound after the longer 2019 armbar over Makhir Aliyev and kept the win streak moving through the pandemic period.

Key moments

• Abdullayev stopped Khudoyorov by TKO at 1:15 of the first round.
• The finish came a little over a year after the submission of Makhir Aliyev.
• It maintained Abdullayev's pattern of stacking early finishes.

The Aliyev fight gave Abdullayev an important M-1-level submission win, ending with an armbar late in round two. The result mattered because it followed his first-round knockout of Dmitry Berezin and showed he could finish in different ways as the competition stiffened.

Key moments

• Abdullayev submitted Aliyev with an armbar at 3:57 of round two.
• The bout followed the September 2018 knockout of Dmitry Berezin.
• It extended Abdullayev's winning streak to five fights.

Berezin gave Abdullayev one of the cleaner one-shot stoppages on his record, ending by knee only 90 seconds into the opening round. The result mattered because it came directly after the only submission loss on his ledger and restarted the climb immediately.

Key moments

• Abdullayev knocked Berezin out with a knee at 1:30 of round one.
• The victory followed the March 2018 loss to Roman Bogatov.
• It set up the later M-1 challenge bout with Makhir Aliyev.

Bogatov handed Abdullayev the only submission loss of his career, catching him with an arm-triangle in round two. The result mattered because Bogatov later proved to be a serious regional lightweight, and Abdullayev responded well by ripping off another long winning stretch.

Key moments

• Bogatov submitted Abdullayev at 1:21 of round two.
• It was Abdullayev's first loss since 2017 and remains his only loss inside the distance.
• He answered with wins over Dmitry Berezin and Makhir Aliyev in his next two bouts.

Xu was another quick regional stop on Abdullayev's early run, ending in the opening round by TKO. The result mattered because it came only months after the heel-hook finish of Alexey Balyberdin and kept the pace of his development high before the Bogatov loss.

Key moments

• Abdullayev beat Xu by first-round TKO.
• The victory followed the September 2017 heel-hook submission of Alexey Balyberdin.
• It pushed his record to 10-1 at the time.

Abdullayev showed the leg-lock side of his game against Balyberdin, forcing the heel hook in under three minutes. The result mattered because it broadened the kind of finishes on the record beyond punches and armbars alone.

Key moments

• Abdullayev submitted Balyberdin with a heel hook at 2:46 of round one.
• The finish came five months after the corner-stoppage win over Movsar Muhammedov.
• It was one of several first-round submissions on Abdullayev's early ledger.

Muhammedov's corner halted the fight early in round two, giving Abdullayev another stoppage without forcing him to rely on a single clean shot. The result mattered because it extended the unbeaten run he had built across the two Sahib Murodov bouts and the Mansurov decision.

Key moments

• Muhammedov was stopped by his corner at 1:10 of round two.
• The victory followed back-to-back TKO wins over Sahib Murodov in 2016.
• It kept Abdullayev unbeaten through his first seven recorded wins.

Abdullayev beat Murodov for the second time in less than two weeks, this time finishing him in the opening round. The result mattered because it showed the first win had not been a fluke and reinforced how quickly Abdullayev could overwhelm the same matchup once he solved it.

Key moments

• Abdullayev stopped Murodov at 3:13 of round one.
• It was his second win over Murodov in April and May 2016.
• The rematch finish came faster than the earlier second-round stoppage.

The first Murodov meeting ended with Abdullayev stopping him in the second round, setting up a quick rematch only weeks later. The result mattered because it helped establish the string of regional finishes that built the early core of Abdullayev's record.

Key moments

• Abdullayev stopped Murodov at 3:51 of round two.
• The fight followed the 2015 decision over Rasul Mansurov.
• It led directly to a rematch with Murodov less than two weeks later.

Mansurov took Abdullayev to the cards in one of the few decisions on the whole record, but Abdullayev still came out cleanly ahead. The result mattered because it showed a young version of Abdullayev could win a full fight even before the long run of finishes took over his profile.

Key moments

• Abdullayev beat Mansurov by unanimous decision after two rounds.
• It was only the second decision win of his professional career.
• The bout came five months after the armbar finish of Azhibay Akylbekov.

Abdullayev's earliest recorded win came by second-round armbar over Akylbekov. The result matters mostly as the clean starting point of the record, but it already shows the two themes that still define him years later: fast pressure and a real submission threat.

Key moments

• Abdullayev submitted Akylbekov with an armbar at 2:05 of round two.
• It was the first recorded victory on Abdullayev's professional ledger.
• The finish started the run that eventually reached the UFC in 2026.