"Shades of Leon Edwards" - Roman Kopylov sets MMA Twitter abuzz with picture-perfect headkick after losing R1 at UFC 291

Roman Kopylov electrified the crowd present at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah with a spectacular knockout victory at UFC 291.

Kopylov went toe-to-toe against Claudio Ribeiro in a middleweight scrap in the prelims of the event. Ribeiro outperformed Kopylov at the beginning of the fight and won the first round on all three judges' scorecards.

However, the Russian turned things around and scored a brutal headkick knockout in the opening seconds of round two.

The impressive finish invited a lot of reactions on social media as MMA fans took to Twitter to shower praise on Kopylov. One individual compared the UFC 291 finish to Leon Edwards' instant-classic headkick knockout against Kamaru Usman at UFC 278.

"Shades of Leon Edwards."

Another Twitter mentioned how the sudden knockout caught the attention of the UFC commentary team.

You can see a compilation of some of the Twitter reactions below:

MMA fans react to Kopylov's knockout victory at UFC 291

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What is Roman Kopylov's UFC record?

After building a professional MMA record of 8-0, Roman Kopylov entered the UFC in 2019. Unfortunately, the 32-year-old's journey in the multi-billion dollar promotions did not kick off on a good note as Kopylov ended up losing his first two outings inside the octagon

Nevertheless, the Russian bounced back and went on to score three back-to-back wins, all of them via knockout.

With momentum on his side, Kopylov now has an opportunity to become a top 15 middleweight contender with a few more wins under his belt.