The 27-year-old featherweight from Dagestan has been marked for future stardom due to his wide array of skills. And he showed off nearly all the tools in his kit on Saturday night to fend off an extremly plucky Kyle Bochniak.
In a match that’s the frontrunner for Fight of the Night at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, Magomedsharipov won via unanimous decision, taking a pair of 30-27s and a 29-28.
Gloucester, Mass.’s Bochniak demonstrated his fearlessness from the outset, wading in on his taller foe and throwing punches to the head. But Magomedsharipov has a wide variety of strikes and showed them off, throwing kicks of the conventional and spinning variety and keeping Bochniak from seriously threatening him.