Corey Anderson went into enemy territory and got the job done.
Anderson put on a gutsy performance Friday in the PFL Champions Series: Dubai co-main event as he outlasted crowd favorite Dovlet Yagshimuradov to claim the promotion’s light heavyweight title at Coca-Cola Arena. After five grueling rounds, Anderson came away with a unanimous decision thanks to the judges’ scores of 49-45, 49-45, 48-47.
Once the result was announced and the belt placed around his waste, Anderson (20-6) fell to his knees and immediately cried tears of joy. He’d been the Bellator light heavyweight champion before but came into the bout looking to claim the newly minted PFL title.
Anderson outstruck Yagshimuradov over the course of 25 minutes, but the fight was not without adversity, especially early on. In the first round, Anderson was rocked by a haymaker, but Anderson was smart to level change in order to neutralize further damage and finished the round in firm control.
The fight continued to be fast-paced in Round 2, with both men landing punches, although Yagshimuradov appeared to start getting tired. Anderson’s striking took over in Round 3 as he was effective from the outside using long jabs and landing some hard straight right hands.
Anderson diversified his attack even more in the fourth round, going to the body and up high effectively. Then he landed a takedown without about 3:35 remaining and punished Yagshimuradov with ground-and-pound the rest of the way. Anderson polished off his performance with a solid fifth round to secure the win.
The result marked Anderson’s second win over Yagshimuradov as he won by third-round TKO in the 2021 Bellator light heavyweight grand prix.
