With the crowd heavily behind him thanks to coach Khabib Nurmagomedov, Artur Zaynukov was able to come away with a dominant decision over Takeshi Izumi during the PFL Champions Series 2 portion of PFL Cape Town.
Izumi looked to assert pressure, but Zaynukov's wrestling led to several takedowns and plenty of control time. Izumi scrambled well, but Zaynukov had the edge in terms of grappling exchanges.
Both men landed cleanly in round two, with Zaynukov's power and timing beginning to shine. A key momentum shift came when Zaynukov reversed and Izumi takedown and dominated positionally, nearly taking the back and landing plenty of ground strikes.
Izumi threatened positional advances during the third round, but Zaynukov's defense shut him down, adding in another takedown before the end of the round to cap off the decision win.
Artur Zaynukov Scores Decision Over Takeshi Izumi At PFL Cape Town
Zaynukov is now 2-0 in the PFL, having defeated Dedrek Sanders at the PFL Battle of the Giants card in October.
Izumi, a DEEP veteran, falls to 6-4. He came into this bout off a win over Spike Carlyle in RIZIN earlier this year.