"Aliev came out firing and buckled him with a left hand. He kept letting his hands go, repeatedly finding the mark with that left and walking Rock down to the cage. Aliev wasn't exactly delivering a striking clinic, but he was crashing the pocket in bursts and consistently landing the heavier shots. Rock looked uncomfortable, struggling to find any success. His striking appeared labored and slow in comparison."
"In round two, Rock desperately needed to earn Aliev's respect, but the round didn't open in his favor. Aliev controlled the center, threw far more volume, and Rock's reactions to getting hit were increasingly concerning. To his credit, Rock showed solid takedown defense, which may have been the part of the matchup he thought would carry him. But outside of a few kicks from range, he was clearly outgunned on the feet."
Shem Rock made his UFC debut in Doha, facing Nurullo Aliev. Aliev dominated the striking exchanges, repeatedly landing a left hand that buckled Rock and consistently pressuring him against the cage. Rock defended takedowns well, but his standup looked labored and he struggled to counter Aliev's volume. In later rounds Rock secured takedown attempts and briefly achieved mount, but Aliev used the fence to recover and continued to control forward pressure. Rock also nearly got caught in a choke during a scramble and landed a few head kick attempts that failed to materially slow Aliev. Aliev's heavier shots and sustained pressure decided the contest.
Read at Cageside Press
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]