{"id":751902,"date":"2026-06-22T01:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T01:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/751902\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T01:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T01:28:09","slug":"ufc-vegas-119-rookies-graded-magomedov-twister-earns-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/751902\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC Vegas 119 Rookies Graded: Magomedov Twister Earns A+"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Five rookies made their UFC debuts at UFC Vegas 119 on Saturday night at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas, posting a combined record of 3-2 with two violent finishes.<\/p>\n<p>Murtazali Magomedov delivered the performance of the night, per MMA Mania&#8217;s Alexander Behunin. The Season 9 Contender Series signee survived early power shots from Melsik Baghdasaryan, secured a takedown, transitioned to back control and locked up a Scottish twister for the tap in under two minutes. The submission earned Magomedov an A+ grade and a $100,000 performance bonus. Behunin noted that while Magomedov&#8217;s striking defense remains a question mark, the 11-0 grappler &#8220;reminded everyone why he was such an intriguing signing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Chokheli Opens With Brutal Body Shot Finish<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnews.com\/division\/welterweight\/\" class=\"internal-link text-bone underline decoration-ash\/30 hover:decoration-gold underline-offset-2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Welterweight<\/a> Levan Chokheli also earned top marks with a first-round stoppage of Leon Shahbazyan. The seven-fight Bellator veteran landed two calf kicks that immediately wobbled Shahbazyan, then finished him with a body shot that doubled him over. At 29 years old, Chokheli joins a growing roster of Georgian talent and drew praise as a high-level addition to the division.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnews.com\/division\/featherweight\/\" class=\"internal-link text-bone underline decoration-ash\/30 hover:decoration-gold underline-offset-2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Featherweight<\/a> Shane Collins swept the scorecards 30-27 over Otari Tanzilovi in the night&#8217;s opening bout. Collins showed crisp striking and stayed dangerous off his back, attempting three submissions despite absorbing multiple takedowns. The 8-0 prospect earned an A grade for his willingness to engage everywhere.<\/p>\n<p>Shahbazyan, a 6-foot-4 welterweight, received failing marks after the body shot stoppage. Tanzilovi struggled to generate offense despite landing takedowns and was graded a D for a performance described as lay-and-pray with little impact. Both rookies face uncertain futures on the roster after one-sided losses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"image-credit\">Photo: The White House \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:UFC_Freedom_250_press_conference_at_the_Lincoln_Memorial_in_Washington,_D.C.,_Friday,_June_12,_2026_-_25(cropped).jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, Public domain<\/p>\n<p class=\"sources-heading\">Original reporting:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five rookies made their UFC debuts at UFC Vegas 119 on Saturday night at the Meta Apex in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":751903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-751902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/751903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}