Sarvarjon Khamidov didn’t need long in Chicago. The bantamweight knocked out Rafael do Nascimento at 1:49 of the first round Friday night at Wintrust Arena, putting him away with a short left hook and a burst of punches on the PFL Chicago main card, according to MiddleEasy’s highlight writeup.
The finish played live on ESPN2, and the reaction online was instant. The PFL account posted “SARVARJON KHAMIDOV IN THE FIRST ROUND” within minutes, and Spinnin Backfist summed up the room with “GAH DAM.” Sherdog’s highlight headline had Khamidov wiping out do Nascimento, and Yahoo’s had him swarming his opponent. Both are accurate. The hook did the damage, and Khamidov made sure there was no recovery window.
Thiago Alves, who coaches with American Top Team, offered the most specific description on X. He wrote that a single check hook from Khamidov was enough to snap a four-fight streak. A check hook is a counter, thrown while stepping off an opponent’s forward pressure, so the knockout punch was a reactive one. That’s a mature punch to find on a main card.
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The numbers
Both men came in clean on the scale Thursday. Khamidov weighed 135.8 pounds and do Nascimento came in at 135.4, part of a card where every fighter made weight. The fight sat third on the main card, behind the Jena Bishop vs. Liz Carmouche title rematch and the featherweight co-main between Timur Khizriev and Gabriel Braga.
It was the only finish of the main card. Bishop took the vacant women’s flyweight title from Carmouche by unanimous decision (48-47 x3) in a five-round war, Khizriev edged Braga by split decision, and Oualy Tandia opened the main card with a unanimous decision over J.P. Saint Louis. On a main card where three of the four fights went to the judges, the 109-second knockout is the one people will be clipping.
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He kept his unbeaten run intact, and he wasn’t the only ATT fighter to win emphatically on the night. Noah Hermosillo stopped Caden Cox with a body kick and punches at 1:43 of Round 3 on the prelims, and Alves wrote that Hermosillo broke his hand in the first round and still got the finish. Alves called it “Two ATT finishes, one night” and added, “The new generation has arrived.”
What’s next
The PFL hasn’t announced Khamidov’s next fight. Alves closed his post with “Abu Dhabi next,” though he didn’t specify whether that applied to Khamidov, Hermosillo or the team in general, so treat it as a hint and nothing firmer until the promotion confirms a booking.
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Quick take
The check hook is the detail I keep coming back to. Plenty of unbeaten prospects win fast by charging forward and outgunning someone. Khamidov, by Alves’ account, let do Nascimento come to him and punished the entry, then had the killer instinct to swarm instead of admiring the shot. The referee let him finish the job at the right moment, too, which is all you can ask for. If the PFL is smart, his next opponent at 135 is someone with a name, because one hook and 109 seconds on ESPN2 is exactly how a bantamweight earns a step up.
