UFC Fight Night 122 results: Flawless Zabit Magomedsharipov chokes out Sheymon Moraes with 30 seconds left

Zabit Magomedsharipov made things look easy in a dominant win over former WSOF title challenger Sheymon Moraes.

Magomedsharipov (14-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) dominated Moraes (9-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) for nearly 15 minutes, then put the Brazilian away with a late anaconda choke. Magomedsharipov was on his way to an easy win on the judges’ scorecards, but no doubt was glad for the finish, which came with 30 seconds left in the fight.

The featherweight bout closed out the preliminary card of today’s UFC Fight Night 122 event at Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai. It streamed on UFC Fight Pass.

Moraes took the center early while the taller Magomedsharipov moved on the outside. Thirty seconds in, Magomedsharipov landed a solid kick to the midsection and followed it up with a second moments later. But a minute in, Moraes made his presence known with a switch kick to the head. Magomedsharipov walked through it without much issue and landed a solid right hand. Moraes landed another good kick, but Magomedsharipov caught it and popped a right hand onto him. Moraes tried to put togehter a combination, but Magomedsharipov’s height and reach advantage made him hard to catch up to.

Magomedsharipov caught another kick midway through and used it to land a takedown in the center of the cage. He tried to posture up to land punches, then took Moraes’ back when he got to his feet. He slamed him back down, then took his back with ease with 90 seconds to work. Moraes was no match for Magomedsharipov’s takedown attempts. Moraes scrambled to get back to half-guard after Magomedsharipov briefly got to full mount. But seconds later, Magomedsharipov was in side control, then popped to mount and went after an arm-triangle choke. He landed elbows before the horn, but couldn’t put Moraes away before the end of the round.

The takedown was there for Magomedsharipov early in the second with another takedown. But somehow, Moraes scrambled around to get on top. It didn’t take long for Magomedsharipov to reverse him, though. He took Moraes’ back again on the feet and got ready to toss him, but Moraes went to his knees voluntarily instead. Magomedsharipov looked for a rear-naked choke, then landed heavy punches from back mount. Moraes rolled back over but was easily mounted by Magomedsharipov, who then moved around to side control. He popped back to full mount, but Moraes recovered to half-guard – though there was very little he could do against Magomedsharipov’s top control.

Magomedsharipov kicked Moraes’ legs out from under him early in the third and continued to make things look easy. A spinning back fist was on the money 75 seconds into the round, and Magomedsharipov took Moraes back down seconds later. Moraes was almost exclusively defensive the rest of the fight. With 100 seconds left, Magomedsharipov again got to full mount. He tried to pound Moraes away, then finally got an anaconda choke in the final 45 seconds. He rolled it around and torqued, and finally Moraes had to tap.

Magomedsharipov won for the 10th straight time and hasn’t lost since April 2013. Moraes had a two-fight winning streak snapped in his UFC debut.

Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 122 results include:

• Zabit Magomedsharipov def. Sheymon Moraes via submission (anaconda choke) – Round 3, 4:30
• Kenan Song def. Bobby Nash via knockout (punches) – Round 1, 0:15
• Yan Xiaonan def. Kailin Curran via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
• Song Yadong def. Bharat Khandare via submission (front choke) – Round 1, 4:16
• Shamil Abdurakhimov def. Chase Sherman via knockout (punches) – Round 1, 1:24
• Gina Mazany def. Yanan Wu via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Rolando Dy def. Wuliji Buren via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 30-27)
• Cyril Asker def. Hu Yaozong via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 2:33

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 122, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(MMAjunkie’s John Morgan contributed to this report on site in China.)