Was the Ref Pressured? Abdullaev and Grakov Break Down Tahir’s UFC Debut

Hello everyone, you're watching. The weekly discussion on the mma-tv.com portal. My name is Julia Mirei. And this past Saturday, June 27th, a UFC tournament took place in Baku. Former MMA Series fighter Tahir Abdullaev made his debut there. His opponent was Jefferson Nascimento. Takhir won by technical knockout at the end of the third round. Let's discuss this and other topics with Tahir Abdullaev himself and the referee of the MMA Union Artur Grakov.

Hi, hi.

Yes, hello.

Tahir, share your feelings. How was your UFC debut? Is it very different emotionally from other leagues, especially from ours, from the MMA Series?

The only thing that changes is the logo. You could say it's all the same. The opponents are just as tough and serious. Nothing really changes much there, but of course, the league is very serious. The conditions are absolutely fantastic and the audience is incredibly massive. It's a truly remarkable league.

It was just specifically for several different options at that point in time.

fights, I signed a contract. I was also in Abu Dhabi for a month. Because in Baku, they hold events every month. And they're even tougher. So for... Three weeks before the tournament, they called me and said I could participate in Abu Dhabi. And I agreed.

So you took the fight on short notice?

Yeah, you could say almost yes. But I felt that year after year, you need to keep pushing yourself. I prepared really well. For me, the most important thing is to be mentally ready. And physically, if I was ever ready. The main thing is for a person to be ready.

So, what do you have left now? So, you still have two fights left on your contract?

Well, actually, three more fights on the contract.

Alright, let's break down the fight itself. There were actually a lot of questions about the judging at the tournament. And in your fight too. Well, obviously, the main complaint is about the referee, who supposedly stopped it too early. So right now, I want to ask Artur your opinion—how do you see it?

First of all, I want to say that overall, Tahir was winning the fight. And the first, second, and third rounds—the third was already with clear dominance. As for the stoppage, yes, it was early, but that doesn't mean that Tahir, for example, wouldn't have finished him off anyway. That's why sometimes you get these stoppages, when, thanks to the referee's experience, he steps in. He understands that the opponent isn't going to get out of the situation anymore. In other words, he understands that one or two more punches and that's it—there could be an injury. That's why we can discuss and see it from the outside. It might look like the opponent was still defending himself, that maybe he could've been allowed to keep fighting, but the referee was clearly able to see his very own eyes. The athlete's eyes, which were already lost. Based on his experience, he decided it was time to stop the fight. So, often the situation isn't so obvious, not the way we all see it from the outside. That's why, from the outside, it seems like, yeah, the stoppage was early. If the ref had just maybe given it another 10 seconds, if we let Tahir work from the top for a little while longer, he would have... finished him off completely and could have caused him some kind of injury. That's why we can judge things our own way from the outside, but the ref sees it his own way.

Arthur said it very well. Honestly, we lived sincerely, we're just simple people. I'll tell it like it is, I'm a fighter too. I thought, you never know, maybe something happened. After the fight, of course, I read in the comments that the stoppage was early and so on. But... After watching the video, yeah, six. He took some really hard shots. I actually counted, six really hard shots, yeah. And that's why the referee stopped it. And I think if he had let it go, I would have kept going and knocked him out. But I think the referee did everything right. They know better. But not always. For example, I’d like to ask Artur something. My opponent, in the first, second, and third fights... He just ran away for a hundred meters.

Yeah, yeah, that’s my second question.

Yes, I’m curious why the referee there... didn’t do anything and why he didn’t give a warning in the very first round? A warning, for example. Yeah, he was way over the top, running away. I just got tired of chasing after him and started just walking.

Don’t they give a warning for that? So, if he was running away, you know, clearly turning his back to you, then that’s a warning. Everyone sees the fight differently. Some people fight on the retreat, some press forward—you know that yourself, right? He simply chose that strategy.

Yeah, that's the approach he picked.

Yeah, he went with that strategy because you’re a striker, you always press forward. And he knows that if he goes toe-to-toe with you, he’ll lose. So he and his coaching staff decided he’d fight on the retreat. And honestly, he was doing pretty well, because at one point he managed to throw you off your game. And maybe that was one of his goals. To get you to completely lose your sense of composure. You even started openly appealing to the judges for their favor a little, which is really not the best thing to do. So, in a way, he accomplished his goal—he stuck firmly to his original game plan.

During the second round of the match, nevertheless, when Tahir also called for the referee, during the break he was told to stop stalling for time. So, in the end?

Grav... He actually reacted to Tahir's specific remark. I mean, to his intense pressure. Maybe it was the pressure of the entire stadium atmosphere, the heavy pressure of Tahir fighting at home. He was taking this fight.

That's right.

It doesn't matter how. I mean, whether it was by technical advantage or just generally, he was winning it. But refs, they're people too, right? They have their own psychology, and they still feel the pressure. Especially at tournaments like these. So, for the most part, Tahir's opponent didn't break any rules. He wasn't running away, he was just working on the retreat. The ref gave him a warning, but in my opinion, the fighter didn't deserve a warning. That was exactly the kind of tactic he used. It is just that things changed,

I just wanted to fight, that's all. And they started the skitma.

Yeah, yeah. You know, you could say, there are wrestlers, right? Wrestlers go for the legs, take you down, and then hit you, basically finish you off. But then again, this is MMA. We can use absolutely any tool at our disposal here, right? We can't say, why are you wrestling, just stand and fight. And your opponent was just working on the retreat, he was trying, and honestly, he accomplished his goal. Because I'm sure that if the fight had been... if the fight had been tighter, it could have ended much faster. You get what I mean, right? I mean, in your favor, I think. That's why he, you know, watched your fights, he kept an eye on you, he studied you, and he chose that kind of tactic. That's all there is to it.

Tahir's tactic was to dominate both his opponent and the referee. It basically worked, right?

Did it work out?

Tahir, was it a challenge for you that your opponent was undefeated? He had a 13 to 0 record before you.

Well, not really for me. It's just a regular day for a fighter. Just another workday, we just went out there to do our job, that's all. But of course, 13 to 0, yeah, that's a bit intimidating. But let's not forget that my record is 21 to 3, and out of those, 17 wins were before the 40th minute. My number of early finishes is higher than his 13 to 0. And as for my losses, the fact that I lost three fights, it was all because of my own mistakes, because in the last two fights, I shouldn't have even stepped into the cage. I went in just because of my, let's say, Caucasian character. Like, why not? I'll go out now, the opponent is weak, and that's how it happened—I lost. If I had done everything as carefully as some other fighters do... If I had acted that way, I wouldn't have taken unnecessary fights, and I would have kept my record clean.

Still, when you step into the UFC, the level of opposition rises sharply. Many guys who came in undefeated often ended up losing in their very first professional fight. Did you feel that the level of opposition went up?

It really depends on your mindset. Because I'm used to it, and I really like it when a lot of people are cheering for me—especially since I fought in Baku. Mentally, I was very relaxed and highly motivated. Because of that, I went out there relaxed, fought, and that was it. But for me, of course, Brazil—in my home country—it was really tense for him, but despite that, he did very well. Like Artur said, he did a really good job. But of course, we're in the most competitive league in the world, and we are feeling absolutely fantastic, and mentally we feel much stronger and more confident than we ever did in the past.

But you know, for some people who compete at home—for example, when I recently spoke with Alexander Shlemenko, he said that for him, it's actually extra pressure. If I lose, well, I'll disappoint everyone. So for you, it turns out, it was actually support?

For me, yeah, it really was support, especially since I'm a pretty laid-back person. All my life, I've moved forward on my own, doing my own thing. No one really supported me or anything like that, so for me, everything is pretty relaxed. This is my job, this is my life. Win or lose, good or bad, only time will tell, so it doesn't really matter. It doesn't matter how, what, or why. Of course, losing means losing money. That's bad.

Just taking it easy. So what are your plans now? Do you want to gradually and methodically work your way up the rankings, or are you planning to explosively burst onto the scene of this division, decisively knock out every single opponent in your way, and pave a straight, undeniable path to the championship belt?

Yeah. Well, that would all be great, but I think I'll... I'll rest until the end of the week, start training next week, and probably have a fight at the end of October or the beginning of November. The thing is, in the UFC you don't get to choose anyone, you just tell them the date, like roughly when you're ready, and they set it up for you. They give you a fight and an opponent. And you can't pick or say, 'That's not convenient, give me someone from the top ten or top fifteen, or top sixty.' Whoever they give you, that's who you fight. You don't have any options there. Because of that, I don't know who they'll give me. The main thing is to have a couple more fights, really start to feel at home. We already feel that way, yeah. But to have a couple more fights, you need to prepare well. And we will get ready, get in shape, and then we'll see who to call out. We'll win one more fight, and then we'll really start to go full throttle, Khabib-style.

Are you living in Azerbaijan now or in Russia?

I live in both countries. Lately, I've been in Azerbaijan. It's because of the weather, the climate, and also because everything is close by here. It's just a 10-minute drive to the gym, to food, to the sea, and so on. Everything is close, everything is nearby.

That's good.

And as you know, I lived in Moscow and trained at the Evolve GYM. That's my second home country, that's my beautiful city. Honestly, it was one of the best places I've ever seen, even though I've been to America, but I would never trade Moscow for any other city in the world.

I agree. The best city of the Earth.

If only it were just a little bit warmer, but still.

Alright, thank you, Tahir.

Thank you, Artur, thank you.

Good luck.

In the agreed fight in Baku, Shar Bullet faced off against Michel Pereira, and after three full rounds, won by unanimous decision. What did you think of that fight overall?

Well, if you look at the fight, basically, if you look at it through the eyes of a seasoned professional, or through the eyes of the judges, yeah, specifically, I have no doubt at all in my mind that Shara won. You know, like, according to the official protocol and the MMA rules in general, he definitely won. And what is the argument even about? It is because he lost the first round. And he lost that round much more clearly than he won the second and third rounds. You get what I mean, right? And because of that contrast, that's where the argument comes from, like, that it was an unfair decision. No one is denying that he lost the first round, right? But he won the second and third. Not as clearly as he lost the first, but he did win the second and third. By a small margin, but he won. So it turns out that by unanimous decision, all the judges—how many were there, three or five—gave the first round one hundred percent unanimously to the opponent, and the second and third rounds went to Shara. Unanimously.

The scandal was about the following. Let me explain for the viewers. Back at the tournament in the White House, Alex Pereira had complaints about referee Herb Dean. Because in the fight with Ciryl Gane, he was getting hit in the back of the head. He even later showed the hematomas on the back of his head. And the referee didn't stop the fight, didn't deduct a point, and so on. And Alex really started a full-on witch hunt. And here, after the fight with Shara, the same referee—there were complaints about him again because... In the first round, Shara grabbed his opponent by the hair several times, the referee gave him a warning, but didn't deduct a point. And now, with the scandal already brewing, even the slightest mistake by this same referee... And that's when this heated discussion starts. So, in your opinion, in the first round, when he gave him a warning, was that a reason to deduct a point? From Sharabutdin?

No, of course not. Well, the guy grabbed the hair, he got a warning, and he didn't do it again. That's it. When there's a groin shot, even a hard one, that's way more serious than just grabbing someone's hair. And the referee gives a warning and says, if you do it again, we'll take a point away. But when someone just grabs hair, they don't take a point off for that at all. A point. If, for example, he got a warning, then pulled the hair a second time, a third time, changed his position somehow to his advantage, for instance. You get it? In that case, yeah, you could take a point away. But here, there's no way they'd take a point off, 100%. It's absurd. So Pereira probably just started talking like that because he was fed up. Like, saying, 'Take a point off,' or questioning how the referee is judging, for example. It was all because he was already upset about what happened. So there's really no reason to even talk about taking a point away here. One hundred percent.

So, Alex Pereira, he lost in the White House because, as he said, he was being hit in the back of the head and the fight wasn't stopped against Ciryl Gane. What are the actual rules regarding strikes to the back of the head?

The rule is that the back of the head is basically where you place your palm on the back of your head, like this, right? So that's what counts as the back of your head. But there are exceptions, for example, when someone is throwing a punch and you turn the back of your head into it. So, if the back of the head is fixed, the head is stationary and not moving, and the person is aiming deliberately. If they hit the back of the head, then that's considered a strike to the back of the head. But if, for example, I'm hitting someone... I don't know, say in the woods, and he turns the back of his head into the rocks, then it's not my fault, so that doesn't count as a strike to the back of the head. You see, when you're aiming here, but the person turns their head during the punch and it lands on the back of the head. That also doesn't count as a strike to the back of the head, because you're the one exposing it, you might be deliberately exposing the back of your head. Just so it looks like, you know, you're being hit in the back of the head. Well, yeah, maybe if it happens two or three times, the ref will say something to you. Still, be careful, but it won't be held against you. some kind of... Most likely, he'll tell your opponent, "Don't turn your back of the head."

Overall, I liked the fight with Shara. Of course, the first round was really dangerous, it was scary because of him, but that's always the case. And probably that's one of the reasons why people love Shara so much—because he's always on the edge, always on the verge of risk and failure. And, in the end, of course, the third round was... Very beautiful, totally his style. I might even rewatch it again, just for the beauty of the middle of the second round and the third round. How did it feel to you overall?

Yeah, there were some beautiful strikes, there was a lot of action. You could see he got fired up, you could see he warmed up, you could see he caught his rhythm. Yeah. That's exactly why he kept relentlessly pressing forward during those last two intense rounds. He held the center of the ring and landed some beautiful strikes. Yeah, if you look at it from the perspective of an average viewer, you might think, like, well, he totally dominated the first round. But we know how all this is judged, that there are three rounds. If we judged everything based on just one moment from the first round, then we wouldn't have three rounds—we'd just have one big round. So... Everything about the fight was great. I honestly think there are absolutely no questions at all about the win. I mean, it is honestly pretty hard to stand up and argue that he— That the win was given unfairly. Everything was fair, everything was right.

Alright. We also have no complaints about how entertaining it was. The accusation against the referee was dropped. The athletes were given the well-deserved win. I think that was a pretty good conversation. Thank you.

Thank you too, Julia.