Rivalries: Edmen Shahbazyan

Edmen Shahbazyan remains on unsteady footing inside the Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight division.

“The Golden Boy” will look to get back on track when he toes the line against Dylan Budka in a featured UFC Fight Night 251 attraction on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Shahbazyan, 27, has compiled a 6-5 record across his 11 appearances in the UFC. However, he finds himself on the rebound following an arm-triangle choke submission defeat to former Resurrection Fighting Alliance champion Gerald Meerschaert at UFC on ESPN 62 in August.

As Shahbazyan moves ever closer to his upcoming battle with Budka at 185 pounds, a look at a few of the rivalries that have helped shape his career to this point:

Antonio Jones

Shahbazyan nailed down an Ultimate Fighting Championship contract, kept his perfect professional record intact and did so in style when he cut down the Pete Spratt protege with first-round punches as part of Week 5 of Dana White’s Contender Series on July 17, 2018 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Jones succumbed to blows 40 seconds into Round 1. The hyper-aggressive Shahbazyan fired punches upstairs, snatched the Thai clinch and uncorked a volley of close-quarters knee strikes. He then reset, let go with a series of right uppercuts and floored Jones with a straight left. Shahbazyan—just 20 years old at the time—swarmed with punches on his turtled counterpart, prompting the stoppage. It was Shahbazyan’s seventh consecutive first-round finish.

Brad Tavares

Shahbazyan cleared what was at the time his highest hurdle yet when he felled the Hawaiian with a head kick in the first round of their UFC 244 middleweight prelim on Nov. 2, 2019 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Tavares met his end 2:27 into Round 1. Shahbazyan called upon a persistent jab, flurried on occasion, kept “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 11 graduate guessing and waited for an opening to present itself. He decked Tavares with a clean straight right on the counter, only to see the well-traveled Xtreme Couture rep shake off the initial cobwebs and return to his feet. Shahbazyan, however, was relentless. Once Tavares made his way back to an upright position, he was greeted by a devastating left head kick that separated him from his senses. The victory moved Shahbazyan to 11-0.

Derek Brunson

The Strikeforce veteran reaffirmed himself as a Top 10 middleweight and dispatched the previously undefeated Shahbazyan with punches in the third round of their UFC Fight Night 173 headliner on Aug. 1, 2020 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. It concluded 26 seconds into Round 3. In a bid to shed his gatekeeper label, a measured Brunson followed the blueprint laid out by Kill Cliff Fight Club trainer Henri Hooft. He shook off Shahbazyan’s best shots—they included sweeping hooks and jarring kicks to the body—and dragged the talented but unproven Californian into uncharted territory. Fatigue set in, and Brunson nearly finished it late in the second round. There, he struck for a takedown, settled in side control and advanced to mount under cover of heavy ground-and-pound, opening a cut near Shahbazyan’s right eye with a crushing elbow strike before unleashing a torrent of punches until the bell sounded. Though he was allowed to continue at the start of Round 3, Shahbazyan was fighting on borrowed time. Brunson drove him to the canvas once more, let his hands go and forced referee Herb Dean to step in on the prospect’s behalf.

Nassourdine Imavov

The MMA Factory product put away Shahbazyan with repeated elbow strikes in the second round of their UFC 268 middleweight prelim on Nov. 6, 2021 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Conducting business in the shadow of the Kamaru Usman-Colby Covington main event, Imavov drew the curtain 4:42 into Round 2. A closely contested first period in which both men enjoyed their share of success gave way to the decisive second. There, Imavov threatened the Shotokan karate black belt with a pair of standing guillotine chokes, powered into top position and shredded him with elbows. The Frenchman then advanced to a mounted crucifix and continued slamming elbows into Shahbazyan’s exposed face until referee Keith Peterson had seen enough.