A brutal powerhouse shook the UFC Apex with a sickening knockout on this day four years ago.
On August 28, 2021, UFC Vegas 35 went down from Las Vegas. In the main event, Giga Chikadze defeated Edson Barboza by way of TKO in round three, marking a breakout performance for the then-highly touted Georgian featherweight.
The result secured Chikadze’s third straight Performance of the Night bonus in the UFC, but when it came to devastating finishes, he may have been outdone that night.
Abdul Razak Alhassan collected an extra $50,000 himself at UFC Vegas 35, and he needed less than 20 seconds to earn that additional check in the card’s featured prelim.
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Abdul Razak Alhassan stopped Alessio Di Chirico with a sickening head kick at UFC Vegas 35
When it comes to feared knockout artists, not many meet the criteria quite like Alhassan.
The Ghanaian behemoth has never needed the scorecards, finishing his opponents with strikes in all 12 of his career victories. And among his most violent results came against Alessio Di Chirico at UFC Vegas 35.
The Italian prospect was coming off a memorable head kick KO against Joaquin Buckley and was looking to continue his momentum. Instead, though, ‘Manzo’ was on the wrong side of a similar result.
Alhassan knocked Di Chirico out in 17 seconds after connecting with an instant head kick at the Apex. The shot landed with a sickening thud and slumped the Italian against the cage, leaving no follow-up shots needed.
While a dazed Di Chirico wondered what had happened, Alhassan delivered a celebratory backflip inside the Octagon to cap off his first win in three years.
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Abdul Razak Alhassan became just the seventh UFC fighter to record three knockouts in under a minute
Alhassan’s vicious performance against Di Chirico saw him join an exclusive club of devastating knockout artists.
With the result, the Ghanaian powerhouse became just the seventh fighter in UFC history to win three fights by way of KO in less than a minute.
Alhassan slept Niko Price in 43 seconds at UFC 228 almost two years on from a similarly quick victory in his Octagon debut. ‘Judo Thunder’ announced his arrival by finishing Charlie Ward in 53 seconds at UFC Belfast in 2016.
The 40-year-old likely won’t be increasing his tally to four sub-one minute UFC knockouts after being removed from the roster this past March. Alhassan’s release came amid a difficult three-fight winless run.