He arrived hopping towards the cage in the center of the Adidas Arena, smiling but eager to do battle, and he came out walking, savoring his performance with pride. Patrick Habirora (23 years old, now 4 wins, 0 losses among professionals) once again sparked by winning by knockout. technique in less than 2 minutes against Welshman Alex Aston, Friday evening at ARES 22.
The two men had already faced each other in the semi-finals of the European Amateur Championship, in 2022. Habirora, the “Belgian bomber”, then won, by knockout. Friday evening, the Belgian from Namur only needed 1’30”, a right to the body which made Aston bend, then an impeccable finish on the ground to confirm all his potential.
His fight was only the first on the main card, a good distance (nearly an hour and a half) from the main event. However, he is by far the one who made the most noise in the lair of Paris Basket, the public being largely won over to the cause of Habirora who already enjoys great popularity in the world of MMA.
The champions retain their title
After the Habirora fight, the evening lost at times the atmosphere that one might have expected from this 22nd ARES event, announced as the biggest in the history of the young French organization created in 2019. She had moved for the occasion to the Adidas Arena at Porte de la Chapelle, in the north of Paris, larger than the Dôme de Paris where it organizes most of its evenings, but the sports hall was still far from its configuration complete.
The fights for the title all ended in decision, proof of the level of competition of the evening and of its very close fights. Like the main event between the lightweight champion (-70 kg) Axel Sola and Daguir Imavov, Nassoursine’s older brother, who is in the UFC.
The duel went to the end of five rounds of five minutes and ended in a tie, logical in view of the duel which first saw Imavov send Sola to the mat then Sola take the lead in the following rounds. Enough for Sola to keep his belt and remain undefeated among professionals (7 wins, 0 losses, now 1 draw).
Before that, the other French champion of the evening, Aboubakar Younousov, emerged victorious by unanimous decision from his confrontation like the Brazilian Fabricio Nunes. The Trojan of Chechen origin retained his bantamweight belt (-61 kg) and appealed, after his victory, to Dana White, boss of the UFC, an organization he would like to join soon.
The last belt put into play this Friday evening was the vacant heavyweight belt (+93 kg), which went to Abu Bakr Bathily, winner by unanimous decision from Sofiane Boukichou. Bathily started very strong by knocking out his opponent… from the 10th second and with his first strike. Unable to finish the fight in the first round, he had to wait to win and receive his championship belt from the hands of Taylor Lapilus, winner the previous week at the UFC.
