A brutal TKO loss suffered by Australian Shannon Ross quickly quietened the RAC Arena crowd in Perth but Sydney native Joshua Culibao made sure that didn’t last long.
The featherweight fighter pulled of a stunning comeback at UFC 284, submitting Melsik Baghdasaryan with a rear-naked choke after copping a low blow earlier in the bout that had the Australian struggling to breathe.
Culibao was on the receiving end of a spinning back kick below the belt in the opening round and while the 28-year-old had been given five minutes to recover, he only took a few before exploding to life in the second round.
Watch UFC 284: Makhachev v Volkanovski LIVE on Main Event available on Kayo & Foxtel, Sunday 12 February from 2pm AEDT. ORDER NOW >
LIVE BLOG: Follow all the latest results and updates from Perth at UFC 284
‘I’m coming for everything!’ – Volk | 00:57
The Australian dropped Baghdasaryan with a jab and then immediately pounced on the neck, later getting his hooks sunk in to force his rival to tap out.
“You see just here he lands that jab and follows it up so nicely,” Dominick Cruz said in commentary.
“Look at how he throws the choke in immediately with no hooks, he waits a second but first he gets it under the chin and then he throws the hooks in and then he secures it and switches the lock.
“Baghdasaryan is doing the right thing fighting the hand but he switched the lock, got it behind the head and that was it. So tight, so quick.”
It marked a third-straight win for Culibao and the first submission victory of his career, bringing the raucous Perth crowd to its feet — and he wanted something back in return.
“Culibao is looking for a beer, you’ve got to think one of the Aussies will oblige,” Jon Anik said in commentary.
Unfortunately no one was able to get one to him in time but it did little to sour the mood as Culibao described the victory as a “dream come true” while speaking to Michael Bisping in the octagon.
“Perth, thank you for having me and the UFC coming down under,” he said.
“I f***ing love you guys. That’s $50,000 bonus-worthy, give me my money.”
As for the low blow earlier in the fight, Culibao tried his best to explain the feeling without getting too descriptive.
“It was pretty bad,” he said.
“It was one of those ones where you’ve got to sort of figure out they’re still there, you know what I mean?
“If you’ve ever been hit in the nuts before. That’s the game we play when we were growing up, when you get smacked in the nuts and it sort of feels like, it comes up.”