Mark Striegl suffered his third straight loss at UAE Warriors 39 although the Fil-Am fighter can consider himself a little unfortunate. He dropped a unanimous decision to Walter Cogliandro in a fight that really could have gone either way.
Striegl was making his promotional debut in what was his first fight in over a year. The Filipino’s last outing came in February 2022 where he lost to Chas Skelly in what would be his final UFC fight.
Striegl has 14 submission wins on his record so it was no surprise when he took the Italian down early in the opening round. But Cogliandro defended well and looked dangerous off of his back is he left his opponent bleeding with elbows from the bottom.
Clash of styles
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Worst run
By contrast Cogliandro has wins by way of knockout and looked dangerous on the feet in the second round. The 31 year old did solid work from the inside as he landed knees and elbows in a contest that was clearly a clash of styles, pitting the Fil-Am grappler against the Italian stand up specialist.
Striegl sought to get him up against the cage wall at the end of the second round but Cogliandro responded with a flurry of punches. the UFC veteran was able to secure a takedown in the third but couldn’t keep his opponent down for long.
Once Cogliandro returned to a standing position he was able to show off his superior striking arsenal once more. Both men felt they had done enough to win but it was the Italian who had his hand raised.
Cogliandro locked up the unanimous decision and extended his record to 12-4. Striegl slips to 18-5-0-1 and is on the worst run of his entire career, winless in has last four fights.
Best of the rest
In the main event Mochamed Machaev (13-1) underlined his status as a blue chip prospect with a hard fought decision win over Bagdos Olzhabay (13-4). The featherweight extended his winning streak to three.
Former bantamweight champion Vinicius de Oliveira (18-3) got back to winning ways in the co-main event. He claimed a unanimous decision win over Hikaru Yoshino (12-3).
UAE Warriors 39, Abu Dhabi, March 18th
Mochamed Machaev def. Bagdos Olzhabay via TKO (Punches) at 4:02 of Round 1
Vinicius de Oliveira def. Hikaru Yoshino via Decision (Unanimous)
Walter Cogliandro def. Mark Striegl via Decision (Split)
Makkasharip Zaynukov def. Alex da Silva via Submission (Guillotine Choke) at 0:23 of fRound 1
Murad Magomedov def. Javlonbek Tokhtaboev via Decision (Unanimous)
Isaac Pimentel def. Joevincent So via Decision (Unanimous)
Amir Fazli def.Ahmed Sami via TKO (Punches) at 2:43 of Round 1
Maria Eugenia Zbrun def. Coline Biron via KO (Punch) at 2:43 of Round 1
Rustem Kudaybergenov def. Ilkhom Nazimov via KO (Punch) at 0:08 of Round 1
Shoaib Yousaf def. Christiano Marques via Decision (Unanimous)
