Ali Al Qaisi produced a dominant performance to retain his UAE Warriors Arabia featherweight title with a third-round stoppage of Ahmed Faress at Etihad Arena on Sunday.
The Jordanian “Royal Fighter” ended the contest with a guillotine choke one minute and 40 seconds into the third of the scheduled five-round fight to send a strong message ahead of his second title rematch against Canadian Jesse Arnett in the international edition in May.
“Nothing comes easy in this game but I was always confident against Ahmed and retaining the Arabia title,” Al Qaisi said in his second triumph over the Egyptian in just over a year.
“It’s nice to go into the Ramadan month with this result. My preparation will continue throughout the holy month and then come back and show that I’m the featherweight champion in both divisions of the Abu Dhabi promotion.”
Arnett took home the featherweight belt in their first meeting after the cage-side doctor stopped the contest in the second round when Al Qaisi suffered a deep cut above his left eye back in July last year.
However, Al Qaisi made a quick return to the cage to avenge his defeat by stopping Arnett with a guillotine choke in the third-round of the rematch two months later.
“I want to settle this matter with Jesse once and for all that this belt belongs to me,” the Jordanian said after taking his career record to 14-6 on the night. “I feel I’m in great shape both physically and mentally, and perhaps, even better when I return to Abu Dhabi.”
In contrast to the featherweight Arabia main fight, the welterweight title contest turned out to be close, with holder Badreddine Diani edging out Abdulla Al Bousheiri in a split decision.
The first meeting between Diani and the Kuwaiti ended in a similar result last September, and the Moroccan once again prevailed in his first title defence.
Jalal Al Daaja kept the partisan Jordanian fans in high spirits with a unanimous decision over Azouz Anwar of Egypt in the bantamweight.
In the remaining fights, Moroccan Maraoune Bellagouit defeated Emirati Abdullah Musalim by first-round TKO, and Kuwaiti Mohammad Alaqraa won a unanimous decision over Egyptian Omar El Dafrawy in the welterweight division.
Charbel Diab of Lebanon stopped Egyptian Mahmoud Afia with a rear naked choke in the first round of their heavyweight bout, while Syrian Wasem Anwar stretched his unbeaten run to three with a first-round victory over Bahez Khoshnaw of Iraq by submission in the bantamweight class.
Mohammad Bassem of Jordan got the better of Libayn Ibrahim Hassan in a 166lb catchweight contest, Sabriye Sengul of Turkey defeated Egyptian debutant Mena Abdallah in the flyweight division, Jordanian Mohammad Abzakh beat Moroccan Mohammad Abzakh in the bantamweight class, and Mahmoud Atef of Egypt outclassed Jordanian Fouad Al Shami at a 130lb catchweight.
