UFC 273: Oleynik makes his opponent retch, barf in the octagon

Benny A. King

Even at 44 years old, Oleynik has proven that he still has it.

The Russian grappler faced Jared Vanderaa during the last event of the Early Prelims.

Vandeera started off strong. The American heavyweight began keeping his distance and landing pretty good shots on Oleynik.

At one point, Vanderaa decided to grapple with the Russian. That decision turned out to be his downfall. During the first grappling exchanges, Vanderaa was even able to get to Oleynik’s back. However, showing that he is the much better grappler, Oleynik kept calm and reversed the position.


 

Once he was on top of Vanderaa , Oleynik quickly worked through his opponent’s guard and secured side-control.

From there, the Russian got Vandeera in a “scarf hold”. The “scarf hold” is a submission that derives from the “Keza-Gatame” position in Judo. The submission got really popular in catch-wrestling and works by putting the entire pressure of your body right into your opponent’s chest.

The pressure Oleynik was able to generate from this position was so huge that Vandeera had to get a bucket to throw up after the fight was over.

Oleynik proved that he really is a specialist in that submission. Out of his more than 70 fights, he was able to submit several opponents with the scarf hold, including Vandeera, Mirko Crocop, and Anthony Hamilton.

Out of the seven scarf hold submissions in UFC history, two of them were performed by the Russian grappler.

With that victory, Oleynik came back from a three-fight losing streak.

during the post fight interview, when asked if the 44-year-old thought about retiring, the Russian jokingly told Joe Rogan.

“I’ll only do this for a little longer… maybe five to ten years.”

 Alexey Oleynik’s First MMA Win happened on November 10, 1996. Today’s victory makes his lapsed Time Between then and now 25 Years and close to 5 months. Current record holder is Yuki Kondo who will be in the cage again in late April.