It was not far from an easy night of work for Mohammad Karaki, who modified his armbar attempt that got Sallah Eddine Dekhissi to tap and “Olutador” is Phoenix FC’s middleweight champion.
Karaki (9-0 MMA, 2-0 Phoenix) tapped Dekhissi (5-3 MMA) with a first round armbar submission to become the first Phoenix Fighting Championship middleweight champion. The tap came at the 4:15 mark in the first. Karaki shut down all downs of legitimacy and remains undefeated.
The middleweight title bout was the main event of yesterday’s Phoenix 6 event at Du Forum in AbuDhabi. It aired LIVE in MBC Action.
The fight started and Dekhissi is able to walk Karaki back against the cage, trapping him as he attempts to take him down. Karaki works intelligently to reverse the position by trying to trip Dekhissi, but the French/Moroccan ultimately gets the double under-hooks and falls on top of Karaki. Karaki’s grappling and dexterity is impressive however, as he immediately catches Dekhissi in a keylock and is able to sweep him, getting himself into side control while trying to end the fight with the submission that he still has a hold off. Dekhissi frees himself from the submission hold and gets to half guard, but it looks like it’s just a matter of time before Karaki transitions into a better position. Eventually, Dekhissi’s legs tire out from defending and Karaki is able to improve his position to mount. The champion, with little effort, then quickly takes Dekhissi’s back, threatening with a rear naked choke. Karaki chooses to sacrifice his position and go for an armbar, a tactic that proves to be a smart check mate move by Karaki as he gets the submission victory over Dekhissi.
As a result, Karaki extends his already impressive undefeated record to 9-0-0 and maintains the Phoenix Middleweight championship. Finding a Middleweight who can actually threaten the ever-improving and well-rounded mixed martial arts game of the current skillful champion is now getting even tougher!
