Said Nurmagomedov turned in the best performance of the night with his slick guillotine choke finish of Cody Stamann just 47 seconds into Round 1. Nurmagomedov had not stepped inside the octagon since October 2020, but was razor sharp in his return to the cage.

Stamann opened the fight aggressively charging forward, but Nurmagomedov was up to the challenge as he slammed Stamann with an inside leg kick and followed by clipping him with a solid right hook. Stamann continued to pressure and Nurmagomedov landed a nice spinning backfist immediately followed by a spinning back kick to Stamann’s midsection. Nurmagomedov stings Stamann with a straight right hand as he was clearly flowing and showing off his impressive striking.

The beginning of the end started with Nurmagomedov missing another spinning backfist attempt and Stamann seizing the opening by grabbing Nurmagomedov’s back before trnsitioning to a single leg takedown attempt. Nurmagomedov displayed great balance in defending and briefly staying upright. Nurmagomedov then uses a nifty trip to send Stamann to his knees but Stamann continues with the takedown attempt. Nurmagomedov, however, had Stamann in a bad spot with his left arm wrapped around the back of Stamann’s neck and quickly slapping on a high elbow guillotine that was tight in a heartbeat that produced the immediate tap from Stamann. Impressive victory for Nurmagomedov who earned a performance bonus with his beautiful choke finish. Hopefully we will see Nurmagomedov back in the octagon soon as he is an exciting fighter who appears to have a real shot at doing damage in the UFC’s stacked bantamweight division.