Fiziev finished in the fifth round with Dos Anjos

UFC lightweight has a new contender following Rafael Fiziev’s solid win on Saturday at the APEX in Las Vegas.

Fiziev knocked out Brazilian veteran Rafael Dos Anjos in the fifth round of the UFC Vegas 58 main event with a combination to the face early in the round to send his opponent to the canvas to force referee Mark Smith to step in and call the fight.

In the final statistics, Fiziev was slightly superior in total punches with 92 of 192 thrown (48 percent effectiveness) to 90 of Dos Anjos, in power goals the difference was also in favor of ‘Ataman’ with 64 to 54, however, the only two knockdowns of the fight were achieved by the Brazilian.

But it was not necessary to wait for the judges’ decision with the final combination of Fiziev, who threw a knee to the body of Dos Anjos, followed by a flurry of punches to the face.

With the win, Fiziev, ranked No. 10 in the division, improved his record to 12-1 with six consecutive wins, three of them by knockout. Fiziev’s only career loss came in 2019 by technical knockout to Magomed Mustafaev in his UFC debut.

For Dos Anjos, No. 7 at lightweight, this loss keeps him out of a potential title shot and stagnates him at 31-14, with losses in three of his last five fights, though only this one was by knockout.

In the co-main event, Caio Borralho defeated Armen Petrosyan by unanimous decision in a middleweight fight.

Also on the main card, bantamweight Said Nurmagomedov defeated veteran Douglas Silva de Andrade by unanimous decision; at heavyweight, Chase Sherman knocked out Jared Vanderaa in the third round; Aiemann Zahabi defeated Ricky Turcios by unanimous decision at bantamweight; and experienced lightweight Michael Johnson lost by split decision to Jamie Mullarkey.

On the preliminary card, Cody Brundage knocked out Tresean Gore at middleweight; Antonina Shevchenko beat Cortney Casey by split decision at women’s flyweight; featherweight David Onama had the only submission of the night after stopping Garret Armfield with a triangle choke in the second round; semi-featherweight Kennedy Nzechukwu knocked out Karl Roberson in three rounds; and bantamweight Saidyokub Kakhramonov defeated Ronnie Lawrence by unanimous decision.

Mexican flyweight Cynthia Calvillo was scheduled to face Nina Nunes, however, the bout was cancelled after her opponent withdrew due to illness.