Mohammad Yahya defends UAE Warriors Arabia title with impressive late stoppage

Mohammad Yahya made a successful first defence of his UAE Warriors Arabia lightweight mixed martial arts title with victory over Moroccan Mohamed El Jaghdal at Etihad Arena on Sunday.

Yahya ended the contest with an arm-triangle choke with just under a minute left in the fifth and final round in the seventh edition of the UAE Warriors Arabia, the concluding event of the Abu Dhabi promotion’s first triple header.

First up was the UAE Warriors Arabia-2 followed by the UAE Warriors-28 (International) before the Arabia edition.

Yahya, the first Emirati to hold an MMA professional title, improved his record to 11 wins and three losses after the result.

“First of all, I would like to thank everyone who stood behind me to get me here, and my family for all their support,” Yahya said. “On the contest, it was five rounds and there wasn’t any hurry for me to finish it off early. I was waiting for those opportunities. I think I had that chance in Round 3 but my opponent got away.

“I was glad to finish him off towards the end of the final round and super happy to at the end result in my first defence of the title. I’ll have to now wait and see what the promotion’s plan for me. I would be glad to get into the cage at the next UAE Warriors fight card.”

In the main supporting contest, Jordan's Ali Al Qaisi clinched the inaugural UAE Warriors Arabia featherweight belt with a unanimous decision victory over Egyptian Ahmed Faress in the 12-fight card.

In the UAE Warriors Africa-2 on the opening night of the triple header, Wisem Hammami won the inaugural welterweight title defeating Moroccan Badreddine Diani in a TKO.

In the UAE Warriors-28 (International), Will Fleury of Ireland scored a unanimous decision over Syrian Tarek Suleiman