Mansur Abdul-Malik is still undefeated and (technically) still hasn’t gotten a full 15 minutes, though he now has seen a judges’ scorecards — not in the way anyone might expect.
Abdul-Malik thought he scored a third-round TKO of Cody Brundage, but an accidental clash of heads resulted in the fight going to a decision instead.
The fight didn’t have much action over the course of the first 10 minutes, with both men taking a cautious approach with their striking. Abdul-Malik had the edge, however, even busting Brundage open behind his ear during the second round. Brundage, however, scored his fair share as well.
But the two appeared to let their hands go completely to start the third round, throwing wild exchanges. Abdul-Malik landed a strong knee to the body. Brundage soon went down covering up, with Abdul-Malik throwing ground-and-pound in route to a TKO. But upon replay, the fighters accidentally clashed heads, which resulted in Brundage folding up on the ground.
Due to what the replay review revealed, the finish was called off. With the fight entering the third round, the brief round was scored and went to a technical decision, with Abdul-Malik instead being awarded a technical unanimous decision.
Headbutt Sees Mansur Abdul-Malik Go From Finish To Decision Win Over Cody Brundage At UFC Atlanta
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Abdul-Malik, an alumnus of Dana White’s Contender Series, is now 3-0 in the Octagon after finishes of Duško Todorović and Nick Klein.
Brundage is now 3-2 (1 NC) in his last six, coming into tonight off a win over Julian Marquez in March.
