Fabricio Werdum, Aleksei Oleinik (©UFC)

Aleksei “The Boa Constrictor” Oleinik, 42, of Moscow, Russia was one of the winners at “UFC 249.” It was the Russian mixed martial artist’s sixth victory in the MMA promotion Ultimate Fighting Championship, which is based in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.

Featuring 11 MMA matches, “UFC 249” took place at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida, USA on May 9, 2020. In the fifth bout of the evening, Oleinik fought Fabricio “Vai Cavalo” Werdum, 42, of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil in the heavyweight division.

Herb Dean served as the referee. After three five-minute rounds, the heavyweight contest was left in the hands of the three judges, who scored it 29-28, 29-28 and 28-29.

In the end, Dean raised the hand of Oleinik. The Moscow native was declared the winner via split decision.

Competing professionally since 1996, Oleinik joined the UFC in 2014. The first seven opponents he defeated in the promotion were Anthony Hamilton, Jared Rosholt, Viktor Pesta, Travis Browne, Junior Albini, Mark Hunt and Maurice Greene.

Winning at “UFC 249” improved the professional MMA record of Oleinik to 59 wins, 13 losses and 1. On the other hand, Werdum now has 23 wins, 9 losses and 1 draw.

Seven countries were represented at “UFC 249” namely were Brazil, Cameroon, Cape Verde, France, Russia, Suriname and the U.S. Oleinik solely represented Russia while Werdum was one of the two representatives of Brazil.

While almost all major international sports events have been either cancelled or postponed, the UFC held “UFC 249” amid the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. As of May 9, 2020, the U.S. listed 1,346,354 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 80,007 died from a disease caused by the virus and 236,825 recovered from it.