If you saw Ali Bagautinov ‘s T-shirt at official fighter weigh-ins on the eve of UFC 169, you probably got a bit of a surprise at Saturday’s pay-per-view event. The Russian, who took on fellow flyweight contender John Lineker, showed up at Newark, N.J.’s Prudential Center on Friday with a shirt that poked fun at his opponent’s nickname and read, “Tomorrow you will feel what ‘Hands of Stone’ really means.” Once they met in a pay-per-view main-card bout the following day, Bagautinov (13-2 MMA, 3-0 UFC) did display some striking prowess – but only after he scored a series of takedowns to take the hard-hitting Lineker (23-7 MMA, 4-2 UFC) out of his element. If Lineker thought it’d be a strictly standup affair, he got a surprise early and often in the bout (watch the Bagautinov vs. Lineker video highlights ). “As I said in my interview a couple of days ago, which you saw on the screen today, I prepared a few surprises for John,” Bagautinov said after the event. “That was just one of them.” The strategy worked for the 28-year-old, who won the first and third rounds en route to a 29-28 unanimous-decision victory.
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Flyweight contender Ali Bagautinov discusses UFC 169′s bait-and-switch game plan – MMA Junkie