LAS VEGAS – Javid Basharat beat Mateus Mendonca with a unanimous decision Saturday to close out the preliminary card at UFC Fight Night 217 in Las Vegas.
Take a look inside the fight with Basharat, who stayed unbeaten and handed Mendonca the first loss of his career.
Javid Basharat vs. Mateus Mendonca
Result: Javid Basharat def. Mateus Mendonca via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Updated records: Basharat (14-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC), Mendonca (10-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC)
Key stat: Basharat started his career with 11 straight finishes, including one on Dana White’s Contender Series to get into the UFC. But in the UFC, all three of his wins are decisions.
Basharat on the fight’s key moment
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – JANUARY 14: (R-L) Javid Basharat of Afghanistan battles Mateus Mendonca of Brazil in a bantamweight fight during the UFC Fight Night event at UFC APEX on January 14, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
“It was a high-paced kind of fight, the first round especially. But I predicted that, so it was easy to recover from. … It pretty much went how I planned it, but it wasn’t as clean as I would’ve liked it to have been.”
Basharat on his gun motion in the fight
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – JANUARY 14: (R-L) Mateus Mendonca of Brazil punches Javid Basharat of Afghanistan in a bantamweight fight during the UFC Fight Night event at UFC APEX on January 14, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
“I hope people don’t take that out of context. He did it to me at the weigh-ins, and I’m like, ‘Alll right. You do your talking at the weigh-ins. I’ll do my talking in the fight.’ After Round 2, I thought I was going to finish him in Round 3, and that’s when I did the gun thing – you’re dead.”
Basharat on what he wants next
“It’s been hard (to get fights). That’s why I took this Mateus fight. On paper, he was a step down. … Not that this guy wasn’t good, but on paper, this was his (UFC) debut. … Now we’ll start getting serious. If I’m not ranked after this fight, let me get a ranked guy so I can show.”
To hear more from Basharat, check out the video of the full post-fight interview above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 217.
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Story originally appeared on MMA Junkie
Source: News