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The rising star of the middleweight division, Edmen Shahbazyan took on Derek Brunson in the main event of UFC Vegas 5. Going into the fight all the eyes were on 22 years old unbeaten UFC middleweight, Edmen Shahbazyan.
With 11 first-round finishes in 12 MMA fight, Shahbazyan was able to gather the attention of the masses. The fans even believed that Shahbazyan would achieve his goal of becoming the youngest UFC champion ever. However, the road to the middleweight title was never going to be easy for him.
The middleweight division is filled with some insane talents such as Robert Whittaker, Israel Adesanya, Paulo Costa, and the list goes on. But, it seemed Shahbazyan had the skillsets to do some incredible things in the middleweight division. However, the outcome did not go in his favor when he took the toughest test of his career, Derek Brunson.
Is Edmen Shahbazyan Overrated?
Edmen Shahbazyan lost the fight to Derek Brunson via TKO in the third round. And this loss exposed some of the holes in Shabazyan's skillset. The biggest takeaway from the fight will be Shabazyan's cardio.
Edmen Shabazyan gassed out in the second round. Considering he came in prepared for a five-round fight against a wrestler, it does make us question the training camp of Edmen Shabazyan. The first round was competitive. Though Brunson scored a few takedowns Shabazyan got backup without much trouble.
In the striking, it was pretty even. However, Shahbazyan landed the bigger shots including some great body shots. But his striking seemed off. Edmen Shahbazyan was missing a lot of his strikes. He was overcommitting a lot. He was not hiding his strikes with faints. He looked way more predictable than his previous fights.
Now it may be because Derek Brunson made Shahbazyan's striking look ineffective or Shahbazyan just came out with a terrible gameplan. But, he did enough to win the first round.
Shockingly, Edmen Shahbazyan, who was aiming to become the youngest UFC champion, gassed out in the second round. Credit has to be given to Derek Brunson who mixed things up brilliantly. He used his wrestling to secure the odd takedowns and landed some heavy left hands on Edmen. But Shahbazyan gassing out early into the fight was the biggest reason for his loss against Brunson.
The skillset that Edmen Shahbazyan brings to the table is legit. However, he needs to work immensely on his cardio. Besides that, his takedown defense is not as good as it should be if he is to succeed against the top middleweights of the world.
Edmen Shahbazyan is a brilliant striker. However, he looked clueless on the ground against Derek Brunson in the second round. Agreed he was gassed out but he had no answers to the ground and pound of Derek Brunson whatsoever.
Edmen Shahbazyan is only 22-years-old and has a long way to go. The fight against Brunson should be a big learning curve for Shahbazyan. Though it seems Shahbazyan has a great future in the UFC his dream of becoming the youngest champion might never come true.
