Sharaputdin Magomedov put the middleweight division on notice last year with an insane knockout.
Magomedov returns to action this weekend on the main card of UFC Abu Dhabi, as he takes on Canadian fighter Marc-Andre Barriault.
UFC CEO Dana White announced the stacked card last month, with the event’s headliner a five-round thriller between Robert Whittaker and Reinier de Ridder.
Magomedov is hoping to bounce back from defeat in his last fight to Briton Michael Page.
The 31-year-old from Dagestan was a big favourite heading into his February bout with Page, but was outpointed by the Englishman after three rounds in his first career loss.
‘Shara Bullet’ will now be hoping to replicate his wild performance in his last octagon victory at UFC Abu Dhabi on July 26.
Magomedov moved to 15-0 by flattening Armen Petrosyan with a one-of-a-kind spinning double spinning back fist at UFC 308.
The bout at 185 lbs was fought at a frantic pace, with both fighters landing heavy blows.
Magomedov won the first round through flashy kicks, before closing the show in the second five minutes by landing, not one, but two spinning back fists in quick succession.
The remarkable combination sent his Armenian opponent crashing to the canvas, and it didn’t take long for referee Kerry Hatley to step in and wave off the fight.
“Stay in your seats, this Island is captured by the pirate,” Magomedov asserted in his post-fight octagon interview.
“Dana White, I came for my gold… when I just started Muay Thai this was the first strike I was shown by my older brother.
“I trained it and trained it — it never landed it, but today I landed it, and it worked.
“Now, this is mine. I patented this shot… thank you very much to everyone who was rooting for me.
“To all the people around the world, to all the people back home in Russia.
“To all the good Russian people, thank you to everyone who roots for Shara Magomedov.”
The victory marked Magomedov’s fifth straight win with MMA‘s premier promotion.
How did Sharaputdin Magomedov lose one eye?
Ahead of his debut against Bruno Silva in October last year, there was a lot of media attention surrounding Magomedov’s eye condition.
The 31-year-old middleweight contender hurt his right eye nine years ago while training in Thailand, and due to a lack of care, the injury worsened.
His eye required an incredible eight surgeries over the course of roughly a year and a half, and he is now completely blind on his right side.
It is certainly an incredible achievement to be competing with such heavily obscured vision, but he is not the first UFC fighter to have done so.
Former UFC middleweight champion, Michael Bisping, fought with one eye for several years, stemming from an injury sustained in a knockout defeat to Vitor Belfort in 2013.
In 2022, the British MMA pioneer left talkSPORT hosts Jim White and Simon Jordan completely stunned when he removed his fake eye live in the studio.
“I guess in hindsight it was a blessing in disguise,” Bisping told takSPORT.
“Because my fight career was going to be over at any moment, so I started doing whatever I could to open other doors, doing other things outside of fighting.”